


Resident Evil

by WhisperingKage



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Naruto, Resident Evil (Movieverse)
Genre: Crossover, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-03
Updated: 2012-06-07
Packaged: 2017-11-06 17:25:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 30
Words: 28,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/421447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhisperingKage/pseuds/WhisperingKage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today all your dreams come true. Those words kept replaying in her head. Yet she still did not know who she was or why she was here. All she knew was that something evil was following her...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**1**

Glass vials were being lifted from a large medical refrigerator. Gloved hands slipped them into a foam lined carrying case. The vials were delicate. Filled with a cool blue liquid.

The hands moved quickly. Urgently.

-.- -.- -.-

An office was in full swing even though it was just starting a new day. Typists typed. Assistants assisted. Lab technicians and scientist in clean white suits walked around gathering data. They were all working hard, advancing science, making life better. Life was good.

-.- -.- -.-

Dozens of metal cages lined the walls. Guard dogs. A sleek black Doberman sniffed the air and began to bark as in a frenzy.

-.- -.- -.-

The last vial was lifted from the refrigerator. But in haste, the gloved hands let the vial slip. The delicate glass tube tumbled end over end and crashed to the floor, it was now covered in shards of glass and blue liquid.

-.- -.- -.-

A handsome young man was sitting in his cubicle. His name plate read: Sasuke. A paperweight was on his desk, "Love is…never having to say you're sorry." A gift from his girlfriend Sakura, the only reason it was on his desk was because  _she_  gave it to him.

He whispered into the phone not wanting to be overheard. In front of him sat a carrying case for glass vials. Sasuke fiddled with it nervously.

"I went to pick them up, but there was nothing there…no serum, no nothing." He looked around nervously. "I'm worried. Easy for you to say dobe, I'm the one in here!"

A fire alarm sounded.

Sasuke almost jumped out of his skin,  _almost_. All around him the worker bees looked up from their computer screens. In an orderly fashion, they took their jackets from the backs of their seats and headed for the door.

They'd all been through this drill a hundred times before.

He sighed as he forced himself to smile at his fellow co workers as they filed out of their cubicles.

"I've got to go. It's nothing…fire drill. Meet me tonight…the usual place." He sighed as he hung up and stood up to following his co workers. Another regular fire drill on another regular day.

Boring.

-.- -.- -.-

A young man with long brown hair in a pony tail looked up and met the eyes of a red headed young woman who wore her hair in pig tails. They booth looked annoyed at the disturbance. The young woman sighed as she lowered her face mask.

She groaned in annoyance. Her eyes filled with semi anger and annoyance.

"Another day, another drill." The young man's annoyance shined through his blue eyes as he handed the young woman her coat.

"Come on Ayame." She nodded at him in thanks.

"Thanks Kouga." He sighed as he looked down at his unfinished work. A half dissected white rabbit. It never failed, whenever they were in the middle of something important something popped up, and then the higher ups bitched about them falling behind in their work.

Asshats, all of them.

"No prob lets go." They both sighed as they walked out of the room.

-.- -.- -.-

A crowd has formed by the doors. Sasuke was amongst them, he glared at everyone as they fumbled about stupidly. Really it was just another routine fire drill no need to get so worked up over it. Stupid dobe's.

A man in a crisp white shirt pushed his way to the front. He was handsome yet not nearly as handsome as Sasuke, then again not most men were.

"What's the matter?" A woman with long golden hair smiled coyly at him, playing helpless. You could practically smell the office flirtation in the air.

Sasuke looked away in disgust, Ino was well known for her sexual escapades in the work room. She had even thrown herself at him yet he had turned her down.

He was more interested in her friend Sakura, who was his girlfriend...until an experiment had gone horribly wrong…

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, no need to get distracted. He blinked when the young man looked at him, panic clearly flashing in his eyes.

"The doors won't open." Sasuke snorted, no shit Sherlock.

-.- -.- -.-

The guard dogs were in frenzy. Barking and snarling and throwing themselves against the cage doors. Almost as if sensing that something was wrong.

A uninformed guard attempted to calm them. His badge identified him as Jaken. He sighed as he leaned down next to their cages and tried to console them.

"Easy there…easy there boys!" What the hell was going on?

-.- -.- -.-

Sasuke mentally sighed as he glared at the panicking idiots. Then again even he himself couldn't deny the tingle of fear that crept up his spine. The last time something like this happened was when Sakura was  _killed_ … he still didn't believe it was an accident.

Either way something bad was going on he could just tell. He looked around nervously and turned to look at the young man again.

"What about the doors at the back?" The man turned semi panicked eyes to him.

"Locked as well." Sasuke nodded, shit.

Without warning the Halon system went off. Pillars of high-pressure gas flooded the room, sucking the oxygen out of the air. Making it impossible for a fire to breathe let alone people.

The workers began to choke, Sasuke included.

Sasuke gasped as he fell to the ground his lungs burning at the lack of oxygen.

A young woman's face flashed before his eyes followed by a bright chipper young man then a stern looking young man.  _"Sakura…Dobe…Onii-san…"_ His vision went black as he gave into the darkness.

The Halon system switched itself off. The worker bees laid sprawled across the floor not moving. Everyone was dead.

The hive was dead.


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

Blue eyes snapped open looking around franticly as if just awoken from a bad dream. Hers eyes darted around as she fully woke up. She groaned as she sat up and looked around taking stock of where she was.

A four poster bed, oak paneled walls, and painting of George Washington were only some of the things that greet her. Through the window she saw the ornate grounds of a manor house. She scrunched her face up in confusion.

Where was she?

She tentatively stepped out of the plush bed she was laying in and looked around. She looked to be about twenty one then again she could be older judging by her well defined womanly figure which was on display to the world seeing as she was naked.

She quickly wrapped her arms around her naked breasts in a vain attempt to beat the chill that crept over her pale shivering body. She realized that she was fighting a losing battle and quickly grabbed the white sheet from the bed to wrap it around her.

Something fell from the sheets and landed on the floor with a soft thud. She quizzically bent over and picked it up. Her eyes looked over the object in curiosity; it appeared to be a note.

"Today all your dreams come true?" Her confusion was easily noticeable through her sweet sounding voice. What did that mean? Was it a note for her? Written by her? She had no idea so she decided to place it back on the bed.

She shook her head afterwards and decided to investigate her surroundings. Hopefully she would find  _some_  clues to help her remember something,  _anything_. She moved through the room like someone who had no idea know where she was. Which was true.

She stopped in front of a full length mirror and allowed the sheet to fall from her body. She blinked as she stared at her own naked body. She was, judging by her appearance, of some sort of Asian descent. She was petite yet toned. She had shoulder length wavy black hair and pale flawless skin.

Yet, her eyes, her eyes were what captivated her the most. They were sapphire blue and the most enchanting things she had even seen. She blinked quizzically as she touched her reflection, like the form before her was a stranger to her, which was sadly true.

She shook her head and once again wrapped her body in the plain white sheet as she walked away from the mirror. She was not going to figure anything out by gawking at herself all day. She glanced around the room and was happy when she noticed a dresser. Hopefully it had some clothes she could put on; she did not want to be naked all day.

She smiled as she opened the drawers one at a time. The first contained crisp starched linens. They were pretty and clean but not what she was looking for so she shut the drawer and moved on to the next one.

The second one held neatly ironed women's underwear. Very white, very conservative. She smiled as she grabbed a pair. At least she was making some progress. Hopefully the last one would have more clothes.

She quickly opened the third draw and was very confused and taken back by what greeted her. A pair of Uzi's with laser sighting, innocently look back up at her.

Who was she and why did she have such dangerous weapons in her possession? Better yet why did she feel a sense of familiarity with these weapons? Like she knew what they were, why they were there, and how to use them?

She shook her head and quickly closed the drawer in favor of walking over to a newly spotted closet. Hopefully she was not in for any more surprises.

She smiled as she spotted some clothes hanging neatly on some hangers. Most were plain white dresses. Hmm? Did she want to wear a dress? She shook her head; no it was too chilly for a dress. She pushed aside the dresses and was happy when she spotted a pair of black ski pants and a white t-shirt. It wasn't the best but it would do for now.

She let the sheet fall and quickly dressed in her new outfit, the shirt was a bit snug but it did a very good job of supporting her breasts seeing as she could not find any bras. Which was confusing, she was at least a B cup bordering on a C yet she did not have any bras? Yes her breasts were quite firm and perky but still…she shook her head to clear her thoughts and decided to look around some more.

She shivered as she walked down the luxurious hallway barefoot; sadly it seemed she did not own any socks or shoes…that she could find. Either way she was surprised at how tasteful the hallway alone was. Tapestries and paintings of old relatives, that she didn't recognize, adorned the walls giving it a feeling of being majestic. Even so she could not shake the feeling that there was something in the air.

Something intangible.

Something evil.


	3. Chapter 3

 

She wrapped her arms around herself as she walked into the dining room the table was set for dinner, but there were no guests. No signs of life. It was very creepy. She quickly exited the eerie dining room and entered another door.

She blinked as she realized she was in a rather large rich looking study.

The only sound was the ticking of a grandfather clock. She walked over to the desk hoping to find a clue about who she was and why she was here. She spotted a framed photograph on the desk. It was of her and a handsome man. They were standing in front of some rose bushes in the garden. He had his arm around her. They looked like a loving couple. He was wearing a wedding ring.

She quickly looked at her own hand and noticed she too was wearing a simple gold band. Was this man was her husband? If so where was he now?

A sudden shadow fell across the desk. She jumped, startled. Something was moving out in the garden.

She tentatively looked towards the garden through the window.

"Hello!" No one answered and she decided to investigate, hopefully she wouldn't get lost looking for the door that leads to said garden.

-.- -.- -.-

She emerged from the house, after five minutes of being lost; she had found her way into the garden.

In the distance, she saw movement at the entrance to the ornate hedge maze.

"Hello!" Once again there was no reply. In the distance the sky was starting to darken.

She jumped as she heard a noise from the maze and decided to investigate it even though she was barefoot and scared. Maybe it was her husband?

She entered the maze and was quickly caught up in task of following someone or something deeper and deeper into the maze. Dusk was turning rapidly to night, and the shadows within the maze were beginning to deepen. With every corner she turned, her tension and fear started to mount.

She was about to turn back when she suddenly stumbled upon the middle of the maze. At the very center point was a chair, and in the chair, a man sitting with his back to her.

"Hello." She frowned because he ignored her yet she would not let that get to her.

"I'm not sure if I belong here." She cautiously approached him.

"U…I woke up…and I couldn't remember anything." The man still didn't speak. He didn't even move. She reached out to touch his shoulder, concern for him and herself was mounting.

"Are you alright?" He was cold to her touch. Very cold. Was he okay?

"Hello?" She quickly moved to stand in fort of him and was relived yet embarrassed to find out that she had been talking to a statue the whole time. The statue was of an old man with a top hat in his lap. She laughed lightly at the irony of it.

"Freeze! Don't move." She jumped and moved to quickly turn around yet was stopped by the same voice yelling at her again.

"Don't move I'm armed!" She froze and awaited his instructions.

"Now put your hands on the chair. Do it!" She did it and hoped to god he would not hurt her.

"What are you doing here?" She gulped as he frisked her. She was scared because she still hadn't seen his face. Yet she would not let him boss her around, for some reason every fiber in her being wanted to turn around and show him who the boss was. But for now she would do as he said.

"I think I live here." It sounded more like a question then a statement.

"You think." She could hear the disbelief in his voice and felt the urge to hurt him get stronger. Yet, she would not act on it…at least not yet.

"I just woke up…I don't remember anything." He sighed as he moved away from her yet kept his guard up.

"You're clean. Turn around." She held her breath as she finally turned around to face him. He was wearing a smart blue uniform, a police uniform. Yet he was handsome and fresh faced, blonde haired, blue eyed and he looked no older than twenty twenty-two at the most. Yet his bright blue eyes held a wisdom that was well beyond his years.

"You're a little young for a policeman weren't you?" He smiled at her exposing straight white teeth.

"I get that a lot." He holstered his gun which put her at ease.

"Who else is in the house?" She watched his every move; even though she was more at ease she was not fully relaxed. After all she had no idea who he was…or did she? She shook her head and decided to answer his question.

"No one…but I didn't look everywhere." He nodded as he started to head towards the mansion.

"Come on…I got a call to check the place out." She nodded as she walked beside him; his badge caught her eye and below it was the name of a town, Kohona.

"Where's Kohona?" He turned to look at her in confusion.

"What?" She swallowed lightly.

"The town, Kohona. Where is it?" He looked at her in disbelief, what was wrong with this young woman?

"You're kidding right?" She shook her head a blush appearing on her face, she felt very stupid right now.

He smiled sensing her embarrassed mood and pointed over a hill.

"It's just over that hill." She blinked and looked towards the hill he was pointing at.

"Hm." Her voice held a hint of embarrassment as she slowly smiled back at him.

"You really don't know anything do you?" She shook her head and looked at the ground as they made their way through the maze.

"Well...that's okay. People used to say that I didn't know anything and look at me now." She smiled uneasily not knowing if she should take that as a compliment or not. Either way she looked away from him and looked at the ground as they continued to walk.

She mentally laughed as the young man next to her twitched in discomfort, he like her, was annoyed with the sudden tension that surrounded them. So she decided to break it, for some reason she could not stand being in a situation full of tension it did not sit well with her.

"So…what were you doing in the maze?" She glanced up at his face out of the corner of her eyes.

"I thought I saw someone." His answer was short and to the point. She knew he wanted to say more yet he didn't and it confused her. Even so she lets it drop; she did not want to pry.

He sighed as he looked at her and then up at the mansion. He felt bad about being so rude to her but he had no choice… He sighed again; hopefully when everything was over he could apologize. Either way they were about to enter the house and he needed to be on guard.

He jumped lightly when she grabbed his arm and motioned for him to stop.

"Wait." He blinked but did as she said.

"What?" She turned to face the dark sky. A sudden breeze blew through her hair.

"Do you hear that?" He nodded as a foreign sound reached his ears. What was that?

The breeze intensified and for a moment the night sky was blocked out. Above them, a dark void, twin rotors chopping silently through the night air. A Darkwing helicopter on stealth mode appeared.

They both look bewildered by the sudden appearance of such an advanced piece of aircraft in such a small a place.

They blinked as it disappeared, just as sudden as it appeared, over the roof of the mansion, losing altitude, coming in for a landing.

She looked at him bewildered.

"Did you call for back up?" He looked back at her just as bewildered.

"No." His eyes were narrowed in suspicion.

What was going on?


	4. Chapter 4

 

They both raced through the house hoping to find the people who no doubt came on the Darkwing.

Through the windows they could see the Darkwing squatting on the lawn. They were halfway to the entrance when the doors were almost blown off their hinges.

A dozen commandos streamed in. A tight, disciplined group, dressed in black and armed to the teeth appear in the doorway. They didn't bother to ask them to get to the floor. They just knocked them down. Within seconds the police officer had been relieved of his badge and gun.

One of the commandos slid an ancient oak panel to one side, revealing a computer jack point. He flipped up the screen on his sleek wrist computer and jacked in.

The leader of the strange armored Team stood above the confused young woman. Granite jaw, gravel voice, he practically exuded the attitude of an Alpha Dog she had no doubt he was number one.

"Report." She blinked totally lost even though his voice held a tone that demanded respect it also held a small under tone of concern?

"What?" He seemed to scoff at her, she must have imagined it, it was hard to tell seeing as all the people in black were also wearing masks, each one based on a different animal.

"I want your report." She blinked in confusion.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." This time he did scoff at her and turned his back on her to look at one of his team members.

"Well?" The one by the panel nodded as he gave his full attention to the leader. He looked up from his computer. Floating an inch above it was a detailed holographic schematic of the mansion.

"The house's primary defenses have been activated. She's probably still suffering the side effects." The leader nodded.

"Very well." He turned to look down at the police officer.

He snatched the police officers badge and tossed it to the man he had just finished talking to.

"What about the cop?" He quickly entered the cop's badge number into his computer. The holographic Schematic of the house was replaced by the names and badge numbers of all the local police.

It was a minute later that he looked up and shook his head.

"I'm not getting verification." The leader turned to face the cop as he glared up at him.

"Who are you?" Naruto blinked up at him.

"I'm a cop…a local cop." The leader took out his sidearm and pointed it straight at the cop.

Naruto panicked.

"I just transferred! I'm a rookie…first day. They probably don't even have me on file yet." The leader turned away from him to look at his teammate yet still pointed his gun at him, obviously not trusting him.

"Well?" He shrugged as if they were talking about the weather and not whether or not they should kill a cop.

"The locals are inefficient. It's possible" The leader nodded and lowered his gun. He turned to two other members of his team.

"Print him." They nodded and easily grabbed him. They extend his right hand and held it rigid. Another one stepped up and used a tiny laser scanner to take the cops fingerprints.

The cop huffed.

"You can't do this…this is an invasion of my civil rights!" The leader seemed to smirk at him.

"Blow me." The cop glared at him and struggled to get away and hit the cocky bastard, but to no avail.

Yet another one of the team turned to the young woman and took off his mask to leer at her.

"Nice ass!" If she wasn't so taken back by his perverted comment she would have noticed he wasn't half bad looking. He had black straight hair that fell to his neck held back in a dragon tail, tan skin, and purple eyes.

"Pervert!" Another commando stepped forward to intervene and removed her mask. She had pretty brown eyes out lined in pink eyeliner; said eyes were glaring at the young man. Her lips were scowling at him in disappointment. Her long black hair was in a pony tail and still it fell to her mid back.

"Go easy on Sleeping Beauty. She's lost her memory." He snorted as he turned to smile charmingly at her.

"No woman forgets me." She rolled her eyes.

"Sure…once they've seen how tiny you were, how could they?" He glared at her but you could easily tell they were just bantering each other, flirting.

"Fuck you." She smirked at him.

"Already did. I think I slept through it." She smiled at him innocently.

The young woman was amused by their antics yet she was just as confused as to  _why_  she was amused.

"Who are you people?" The young man smiled at her charmingly.

"Miroku Houshi at your service, and this fine figure of a woman is Sango." Sango smiled at her.

"His parents were holy people…his revenge was to enlist. And sadly we have to suffer for it." She looked at them in confusion. Enlist?

"You people are with the military?" Was she as well?

Sango laughed as she hooked her mask on her belt.

"Not quite." She looked at her in confusion, if they were not military then who were they? Might as well ask.

"Then who are you?" Miroku frowned slightly at her words.

"You lose your eyesight as well as your memory gorgeous?" He pointed to the badge on his black jacket. It reads: Anbu Squad 1.

"There are eleven other squads. We're number one but we get stuck cleaning up the messes that others leave behind." Everyone's attention shifted from the young woman and the other two when the young man from earlier, the one working with the technical stuff, spoke up.

"I got him!" His computer spit out details on the young cop who was now glaring at everyone save for the young woman. The list was long.

"Jesus, this guy's got red flags everywhere. Atkasuki, Shikon, he's on all the data banks. Naruto Uzumaki, a.k.a. Naruto Pryce, Naruto Hyuuga, Naruto Hatkate.

The leader of the group tore his gaze from the young woman and turned to look at Naruto.

"Who the fuck are you?" Naruto didn't reply.

The young man continued.

"This guy's a real activist, Wanted for multiple counts of Eco terrorism. He's sabotaged seal culls, oil refineries, whale hunts, animal testing labs, chemical weapons plants, nuclear facilities…the list went on." The leader narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

"Do you have something to do with what's going on here?" Naruto looked away defiantly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The leader scoffed and turned away from him.

"Sure you don't." He nodded to Miroku and Sango.

"Cuff him." They nodded as they walked over to him and forced him to his knees and secured his hands behind his back.

Miroku looked at the leader for further instruction.

"Should I secure him here?" He shook his head his eyes once again resting on the young woman.

"No…he may not be alone, we take him with us." He sighed before turning away from the young woman to face his team.

"Prep for entry to the Hive."


	5. Chapter 5

The leader grabbed a slim looking walkie talky and swiftly pressed a switch which allowed him to contact the pilot of the Darkwing, which was preparing to leave so as to not arise suspicion.

"This is Itachi. Team preparing for entry to the Hive. We'll be out of contact till we secure a hard wire."

"Roger sir." The leader now identified as Itachi nodded and silently slipped the walkie talky back into its proper place on his utility belt. After which he turned to the young man next to the panel in the wall.

"Shin start cracking the codes." Shin nodded and flipped open a tile on the intricate floor mosaic revealing another jack point.

Itachi turned to the young woman and mentioned for her to take a seat on the floor.

"Sit on the floor." She sat down beside Naruto. His hands were tightly manacled; bruises were already starting to show.

Naruto looked at her sourly.

"Nice friends you have." She ignored the disdain in his voice and instead opted to watch the team of Anbu in front of her.

Shin watched the scrolling holographic numbers that hover above his computer.

"Entry to the Hive in three...two... one." A pattern started to appear on the floor it was a giant Art Deco spiral that suddenly began to move. Arms of the spiral started to unlock as a huge chunk of the floor began to sink beneath the ground.

The young woman watched amazed as the floor they were sitting on slipped gracefully beneath the earth. Ancient wood paneled walls were replaced with polished high tech steel plates.

She looked at Itachi's back as he watched the procedure making sure everything went along as smoothly as possible.

"What the hell is going on here?" Naruto snorted as he answered her, his voice layered with cynical tones.

"Mostly it's bad…all of its illegal." Miroku glared at him, he did not like the young man and he did not know why nor did he care. All he knew was that everything was fine before he showed up and now things were looking bad.

"Shut it!" Naruto huffed but did as he was told. The young woman got to her feet and approached Itachi.

"Sir?" Itachi's eyes softened monetarily before he steeled them once again.

"What was it?" She blinked at his tone yet she shrugged it off.

"Do you know who I am?" His eyes flashed with something unknown before they were once again steely.

"Yes, you are Kagome Higurashi, Anbu and my second in command." The young woman now identified as Kagome blinked in surprise; yes she could doubt what he said then again he didn't seem like the kind of person who would lie. So she just decided to accept it.

"O-okay…so how deep are we going?" He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"To the bottom." She turned to look at him meeting his gaze.

"And when we get there?" His eyes dulled lightly.

"We're going to see the Queen. And then kill her."

-.- -.- -.-

The platform carrying Kagome and the Anbu Team came to rest in a vast underground cavern. It was a natural creation, but the hand of man was everywhere. As well as the hydraulics for the platform, there were also several temporary structures used for storage.

A set of runway lights were laid out on the stone floor. They lead to a pair of thick steel doors set in the cavern walls. The doors bore the logo of the Sound Corporation.

Itachi glanced at the digital counter on his left wrist. It read 02:58:24. The rest of the team carried identical timepieces. The seconds were ticking away.

"Move out!" Itachi's voice was cold with command and they obeyed it without question.

Lying halfway between the platform and the doors was the body of a man. Kagome was the first one to notice him and immediately recognized him from the photograph in the study. The man with his arm around her. The man that wear the sister to her ring.

"Oh my God ...it's my husband." Miroku laughed as Itachi stiffened monetarily.

"He's not your husband." Itachi mentally shook his head and looked at their only medic a battle seasoned woman by the name of Tsunade.

"Life signs?" She moved to check his pulse.

"Affirmative. He must have caught a dose of gas topside...passed out by the time he made it down here." He nodded.

"Bring him round." She nodded and snapped a plastic vial under the man's nose. He came around instantly.

"What?" He moved to sit up but was hit with a wave of dizziness and had to lie back down.

Tsunade sighed as she placed a hand on his shoulder to still his movements.

"Lie still." She pulled out a pen like instrument, she clicked it and a small light lit up from the tip.

"Watch the light. Follow it." He did so making her hum and put it away. After which she ran through a standard set of tests. The man passed them without fail.

"Now how many fingers am I holding up?" He had to focus on her hand, his eyebrows furrowing lightly.

"Three." She nodded and put her hand down.

"Raise your left hand. Good. Now tell me your name." His handsome face scrunched up in confusion.

"I...I can't remember." She sighed as she turned to look at Itachi.

"He's fine. Memory loss, just like Kagome." By now Kagome was looking as confused as the young man. He seemed familiar from his long waist length wavy black hair, pale skin, and lean build, to his light brown almost reddish eyes.

"If he's not my husband…then who is he?" She held up her hand, her wedding ring glinting in the light.

"And what about this?" The Anbu team stiffened and ignored her question as they went about their business setting things up. Nobody wanted to touch that subject with a ten foot pole.

She sighed as she plopped down on one of the steel benches to try and clear her mind and absorb everything that had happened up until now. She had a feeling this day was going to get weirder and weirder.

Yet for some reason she felt that as long as Itachi and the other Anbu members were with her she'd be just fine. She just hoped she was right.


	6. Chapter 6

The Anbu Team had set up a piece of heavy industrial cutting gear. They were burning a hole in the locking mechanism of the large steel doors.

Naruto stood at a distance, under guard by one of the Anbu. Clearly no one here trusted him.

Kagome and the young man also stood slightly apart from the others. Itachi was with them briefing them on what was going on. Even so he was standing a tad bit closer to Kagome then he should be but no one seemed to want to comment on it.

In fact his closeness to her put her fears at ease, it almost felt right. Kagome blinked as Itachi started speaking once again. He had taken his mask off once they had finished setting things up and she had to admit he was very good looking.

Like her 'husband' he was pale and had long black hair that fell to his lower back and was held out of his face by a ponytail at the base of his neck. He was lean but his body was a tad bit more muscular. But the thing that drew her in were his onyx eyes, they drew her in and made her want to stare into them forever.

"The building above us, the Looking Glass House, was the primary entrance to the Hive. You and your 'husband' were Anbu placed there to protect that entrance." Kagome blinked in surprise.

"We're not married?" Itachi smiled at her and it eased her nerves.

"No. That's  _just_  a cover story to allay suspicion. No one was to know of the Hive's existence." She had a hard time believing this.

"But I saw a photograph" He shook her head as if to dismiss her words.

"Look." He opened a drawer in one of the storage units. Inside were a dozen framed photographs. A dozen different happy couples standing in exactly the same pose, in front of exactly the same set of rose bushes.

"You rotate shifted at the house." Kagome was reeling. She was understandably having trouble taking all this in. Her skin had turned an even paler shade as she wrapped her arms around herself. The only thing that she thought she knew was a lie. She was not married to the young man standing next to her. It was all a lie, so did that mean they mean nothing to each other?

The young man glared at Itachi as he turned to his 'wife' to comfort her.

"You okay?" She nodded as she sat down on a nearby steel bench, the young man following suit.

"Yeah…I'll be fine." Itachi narrowed his eyes at the young man but said nothing. It was not his place to do so.

"Why can't we remember anything?" Itachi spoke up.

"The Hive has its own defense mechanisms and all are computer controlled. You and your partner were intended as the first line of defense in the mansion. If you were killed or incapacitated, then the computer could deploy its own defenses. A nerve agent released through hidden vents in the house. Primary effect of the gas is complete unconsciousness, lasting anything up to four hours. Secondary effects are varied, but could include acute memory loss." The young man glared at him, why did this asshole speak like he was merely telling the time of day? Did they mean so little to him? Were they just pawns to be used and tossed aside after their usefulness was over?

"For how long?" His voice betrayed the anger he was feeling.

"Subjective. An hour, a day, a week." Kagome looked away from the two men as they stared each other down.

"Great. So we were attacked?" Itachi looked away from the young man as if dismissing him to look solely at Kagome. He sighed as he crouched down in front of her and looked into her eyes totally ignoring everything else around him.

"No…I'm afraid things were a little more complicated than that." The cutting equipment suddenly stopped.

Sango looked over at Itachi.

"Sir, We've breached the Hive." He nodded as he stood from his crouched position in front of Kagome and walked over to his team to make sure everything was going according to plan.

The heavy steel doors slid aside to reveal a familiar looking corridor. It was the one that the fallen workers were draped about in earlier…yet they were nowhere to been seen.

Yet the team was none the wiser and went about protocol. Tsunade used a hand held device to sample the air.

"Halon content in the air was high. That must be how she killed then." Itachi nodded.

"Do we need masks?" She shook her head negatively.

"No, it's breathable now." He nodded and looked at Shin. Shin caught his drift and jacked into a computer point by the doors.

"Status." Shin looked over the data displayed to him.

"Red Queen is down to basic logic functions." He arched an eyebrow at him.

"Which means?" Shin grinned.

"She can just about manage a game of Pong. She's no threat."Itachi nodded.

"Good." He cautiously lead his team further into the deserted building, he had a very bad feeling about this mission but he was an Anbu and he would do all that was asked of him. He just hoped that the situation wasn't as bad as they suspect. He had more to lose on this mission than anyone else.


	7. Chapter 7

The Anbu forced open the doors to the elevator shaft. Far below they could see the crumpled remnants of the elevator cars.

Itachi mentally sighed; things could never be easy for him could they?

"Looks like we're taking the stairs." Miroku snickered at the annoyance hidden in his voice as he followed Itachi towards the stairway.

As the team descended the stairs, Kagome fell in beside Itachi causing the other members of the Anbu team to smirk. Yet for some reason Naruto and Naraku scowled but made no comment.

Kagome oblivious to the other's reactions looked at him out of the corner of her eye as they make their way down the seemingly limitless flights of stairs. She had some questions and she was going to get some answers and he was the one who was going to give them to her.

"Who is the Red Queen?" Itachi smiled lightly at the undertone of her voice, it was the undertone that 'Kick ass Kagome' used when she wanted to get her way, and she usually did.

"The super computer that controls the Hive. She's a state of the art A.I. created by the same corporation which built this place." Kagome blinked.

"You mean this isn't a military base?" He shook his head negatively.

"Nope it's a private enterprise. Sound Corp. could buy and sell the military." He smiled wryly.

"They pay better too." She nodded.

"And you're here to kill the Queen?" He titled his head.

"Yes, we're going to put a bolt right through the bitch's logic box." She nodded and allowed a silence to fall over them as they continued their downward climb.

-.- -.- -.-

The team approached a glass wall which separated the lab from the corridor. There were seven narrow jets of water which shot out from the window.

The lab itself was totally filled with water. Floor to ceiling. The water was murky. Visibility was almost zero. The young man peered into the gloom. There was something in there…he couldn't quite make it out.

Suddenly something bumped against the glass. It was a hideously distorted face, distorted by death.

He jumped back in fright.

Naruto looked at him in concern.

"What happened?" Itachi sighed as he looked at the poor dead man in pity.

"Four hours ago, Red Queen went homicidal. Sealed the Hive and tried to kill everyone within it." Naruto scoffed.

Itachi ignored him and continued his explanation, better everyone be on the same page.

"When we realized what was happening, White Queen was brought on line to try and control her sister." Kagome tilts her head in confusion.

"White Queen?" Itachi nodded a small smile on his face at how cute she looked.

"An identical computer based at another location. The two of them fought it out. An electronic Battle Royale. After 2.7 seconds it was over. Red Queen was disabled, and we were dispatched to finish her off.  _But it was too late._ " He looked away sadly a scowl on his face as his eyes became void.

Kagome sensing his mood quietly looked at the poor dead young man floating in the water.

"Why did she do it?" Itachi grit his teeth as his hand clenched in to a fist.

"We don't know." Miroku glared at the cop, blaming him for the down mood that had settled over them, mainly Kagome. Who before her memory loss was and still was like a sister to him.

"I'm sure our bogus cop has a few answers..." He shoved Naruto. "...don't you?"

Naruto glared at him.

"I don't have anything to do with this." Sango glared at him and stepped up next to Miroku.

"Then what were you doing topside? A spot of gardening? Why don't you tell us, huh?" She cracked her knuckles threateningly.

Itachi glanced at them before looking ahead once again.

"Leave him be…we've got professionals for that kind of thing." Naruto snorted.

"I'm sure you do." Itachi nodded, his face and attitude cold and professional once again.

"We do and his name is Ibiki. Unless you want to get to know him I suggest you stop badgering my team." Miroku leaned in close to Naruto, he was smiling wolfishly yet it had a sadistic edge to it, it looked out of place on him.

" _Just to let you know. If you're responsible for this. I'm going to_   _make sure you pay…personally._ " Naruto glared at him yet said nothing.

The team began to move off.

Naruto looked at Kagome almost like he was pleading with her to believe him.

"I don't kill people…you have to believe me." Kagome looked at him sadly.

"I want to believe you…but I can't." She walked off.

Miroku shoved Naruto ahead of him.

"Move it lover boy. Besides she's way out of  _your_  league." Shin shook his head at their antics and looked once more at the flooded lab.

"Poor bastards."


	8. Chapter 8

Sango stood by a set of heavy blast doors which were blocking their progress. She's working on the locking mechanism.

Itachi came up behind her to check on her progress. Yet as soon as he was besides her his gaze shifted over to Kagome who was talking with Naruto and the young man. He had yet to tell him his name and he would not be doing so any time soon.

"How's it coming?" She sighed as she looked away from her work to look up him.

"Most of these doors were magnetically sealed. We're not going to get them open till we sever the power." Itachi frowned.

"Could we cut through?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

"It'll take time." Itachi checked his timepiece. 02:15:32. Not enough time.

"Find an alternate route." She nodded.

"Of course."

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome sighed as she slipped her wedding band form from her finger. Inside the band of gold was an inscription: "Property of Sound Corp."

Naruto looked at her sad face and decided that even if she hated him right now he was going to try and cheer her up.

"Sorry to hear about the marriage." She sighed sadly yet didn't even look at him.

"Leave me alone." What if he  _was_  the reason behind the horrible things that were happening right now?

He sighed as he looked at the floor.

"I'm really not the man you think I am." She looked at him, the sadness in his voice caught her attention.

"Why do you care what I think?" He gave her a small smile.

"Because I don't have any friends down here, and I have a feeling I might need one." He smiled glad that she was once again talking to him.

"And why was that?" He lost his smile.

"Listen. Do you hear it?" Kagome furrowed her eyebrows in confusion yet listened carefully. It was barely audible, but it was there. A low groaning sound. It seemed almost human. Almost.

"What is that?" He shrugged.

"I don't know. But I've been hearing it since we entered this place." He looked up at the grill that covered one of the air ducts.

"It's coming from the vents." She looked up at them.

"Air conditioning?" She didn't know why but the sound made her very uneasy.

He shook his head.

"I just hope your friends know what they're doing." Anger flashed in her eyes at his blatant distrust in  _her_  team's abilities.

"They do. I'm sure they do."

-.- -.- -.-

Shin punched in an access code — 667 — and a heavy steel door slid away to reveal a vast room filled with specimen tanks. The tanks were made of circular plexi and reached from the floor to the ceiling. There were literally hundreds of them, and with no clear way through the room, they formed a grotesque kind of maze.

Each tank was filled with a suspicious looking liquid and some new exciting monstrosity. Animals spliced together. Skeletons that look barely human. Some that clearly weren't.

Bioengineering run amok.

Sango looked around in awe and disgust.

"Now this was some surreal shit right here." Naruto grimaced at the hundreds of ungodly creature's

"Pretty isn't it?" He turned to Kagome a small smirk on his face at her look of pure horror.

"Gene splicing, cloning, chemical testing all of it illegal. Banned by international law. That's why Sound hides it away down here." Kagome paled more, what kind of person was she if she could allow this to happen?

Miroku noticed her uneasiness and the smug look on Naruto's face. Who the fuck did this little shit think he was making Kagome feel like shit?

"Who the fuck asked your opinion?" For a moment, it looked like Miroku might explode. He really didn't like Naruto.

Itachi decided to defuse the situation.

"Miroku you and Sango secure this exit. The rest of you, with me." Everyone nodded as they move to do as they were told.

Kagome continued to pale more as she wandered through the room. She saw human bodies stripped of their skin, just the bare musculature on show. Mesmerized by the freak show, she didn't realize that she was being slowly separated from the others. This room did indeed function like a maze, and she was becoming lost.

She stopped in front of one tank. It contained a strange four legged creature with no eyes and a grotesque long tongue. Perhaps it was human once, but that was a long time ago.

The liquid the dead Creature was kept in was being constantly circulated, and the movement made the three foot long tongue sway. It shined past the Plexiglas, as though it were licking it. Up close, the pink fleshy tongue was covered in a thousand tiny barbs.

Kagome looked away from the tank and realized that the rest of the team had disappeared. She was alone in this grotesque maze. Where literally anything could be hiding. She suddenly sensed movement.

Kagome turned and Bam! She was face to face with Itachi. Kagome tried to stifle a scream, but didn't quite succeed.

Itachi looked at her sternly as he held her in his arms, which he wrapped around her to keep her from falling.

"Don't wander off." She blushed yet made no move to leave his arms.

"Sorry." She glanced back at the monstrous Creature in the tank.

"When I get my memory back, am I going to know what kind of stuff went on down here?" His face becomes steely.

"No." He released her and turned away for her and began to lead her back towards the group. Muttering under his breath as he did so.

" _Not if I can help it."_

Kagome didn't hear what he muttered but she did hear his very short and curt no. And it irked her but for some reason she could not be angry at him. She merely followed behind him, her gaze on his back, which for some reason felt like déjà vu.


	9. Chapter 9

Shin was operating three plasma screen laptops simultaneously, running multiple bypasses on the control room computers. "The Red Queen's just beyond that door." He indicated a thick vault door at the end of the steel corridor. "And she's well protected." Above the door sat an infra red camera with a Weapons Cluster built around it. "High explosive, armor piercing, C.S. gas, this baby had it all."

The young man cocked his head in confusion. "I thought she was going to have trouble with Pong?"

Itachi glared at the young man. "We don't believe in taking risks. Unlike you  _Naraku_." It was clear that Itachi didn't want him bothering his men anymore, so he deiced to tell the young man his name in hopes that it would keep him busy long enough for his men to finish their jobs.

The young man now identified as Naraku drifted over to Kagome almost as if in a trance. "Naraku, my name is Naraku…"

Kagome nodded yet made no comment she too had recently just been told her name and knew what a shock it was to have a 'stranger' tell you who you were.

It was a few minutes later that Naraku got over his shock and decided to converse with his 'wife'

"So ..." He looked Kagome over and twirled his wedding ring suggestively around his finger. "Man and wife."

Kagome scrunched her face in disgust at his audacity to suggest such things at a time like this. The pig. "Our cover." Her voice was curt.

He nodded but a perverse smile broke out over his face. "Living in that house together. Late at night. You think we…you know?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

_Kagome groaned as she threw her head back. "Naruakuuuu….Kami!" She gasped as Naraku thrust into her again enjoying her cries and pants. She groaned again and rose her hips to meet him thrust per thrust. It felt so good…yet at the same time it felt just as wrong because she knew she was doing this only because it was asked of her._

_She jumped as he pulled out of her and flipped her onto her stomach she hissed as he slammed into her from behind hard and rough. Even so it wouldn't hurt to enjoy it would it? She thrust back into him her ass slamming into his thighs making a wet smack._

"I don't think so." She looked away from him a blush on her face as disgust flashed in her eyes.

She quickly walked away from his smirking face to check on how things were going.

Shin smiled at her. "We're in!"

She smiled back. "Good."

Itachi nodded at the other members of his team and mentions for them to get ready. "Kagome, Naraku you guys stay here. Try and keep an eye on  _him_."

Kagome nodded as she watched him lead the Anbu Team towards the vault door. They advanced cautiously, still wary of any potential traps.

Shin was still at his station by the three laptops, Naruto standing next to him, it's not like he had a choice.

He, Kagome, and Naraku watched through the glass wall as the Anbu Team advanced.

Kagome was clearly impressed by Itachi's leadership. Maybe a little taken with him as well. "He's a good leader."

Shin smiled, everyone in Anbu knew about the relationship between their captain and 'Kick Ass Kagome' He just hoped that she too would remember it. He didn't like to see them act like strangers. It's just plain weird. "He's kept us all alive a long time."

Kagome nodded, " _Yeah_." Her voice was laced with awe.

Naraku scoffed at the blatant admiration and infatuation in her voice. Either way she was married to him, even if it was a cover she was  _his_.

Naruto sighed sadly as he looked away from Kagome he knew he liked her but it seemed she was not only 'married' but interested in someone else. Just his luck, first Sakura now her.


	10. Chapter 10

Itachi stood before the vault door. The damn thing looked like it could withstand an atomic bomb, Itachi places a tiny electronic box over the vault's locking mechanism. "Transmitter in position."

Shin fired up his three computers. "Roger...running the bypass." Kagome, Naruto and Naraku watch as thousands of letters and numbers scroll across the three plasma screens. On the first computer, the possibilities quickly reduce, and then settle on a simple code:

RQ KR 4 WQ QB 4 WQ QB 5 - UNLOCK

After a moment the second screen read:

WQ KB 8 WQ QB 8 RK K 2 - UNLOCK

Then the third and final screen:

WK KB 5 RQ K WQ QR 6 - UNLOCK

Shin sat back, satisfied. "Checkmate." The vault door reverberates as its giant locking mechanisms come undone. Thirty inches of steel plate swing aside to reveal a high domed chamber bathed in red light. The lair of the Red Queen.

Itachi took everything in with a cautious eye. "Forward in teams." Kagome, Naruto and Naraku watched in fascination as Itachi unhooked what looked like a miniature rocket launcher from his belt.

Kagome was the only one who voiced her confusion. "What is that?"

Shin smiled sadly, her memory loss must have been really bad…she was after all one of the main designers for the 'mysterious' device. "That's what's going to put the Queen to sleep. The shells are tipped with depleted uranium."

Naraku looked horrified. "Are they radioactive?"

Shin shook his head. "No...it's what's left of uranium once nuclear fusion is over."

Naruto nodded. "Ten times heavier than lead."

Shin looked at him in surprise and suspicion. "What the hell kind of environmentalist are you?"

Naruto smiled as he shrugged in a carefree manner. "I read 'Guns and Ammo' too you know." Everyone cracked a smile at his joke and for a moment they forget where they were and why they were there and it was nice.

-.- -.- -.-

The first team of Anbu were just about to enter the Queen's chamber when without warning, the thick blast door suddenly slammed down.

It separated the first Anbu Team from the control room, cutting off their escape route.

Itachi looked around the corridor with a critical eye. "Shin?"

-.- -.- -.-

Shin scrambled for an answer, his fingers flying between the three keyboards. "Some kind of dormant defense mechanism, we must have tripped it when we opened the door."

Itachi sighed, leave it to Shin to slack off. He would be getting punished later. "Well put it back to sleep." His voice was tight with annoyance and anger

"Working on it."

-.- -.- -.-

Itachi kept a tight rein on his troops. Allowing no one to panic. "Hold your positions! Everyone stay calm!"

Tsunade looked up suddenly. "What's that?" From within the Queen's chamber came a sudden movement. A horizontal beam of red light. Traveling down the corridor at high speed.

Itachi cursed in his mind. Fuck. "Down! Down!" He dragged the Anbu beside him to the ground as the wire thin beam of light passed overhead. Sadly he wasn't fast enough because the beam of light passed through the Anbu's fingers like a hot knife through butter.

"My fingers..." The Anbu stared at his right hand. All four fingers were missing. He looked confused "...what happened to my fingers?" They were lying on the highly polished floor. Along with the remains of his gun, also neatly sliced in half. The Anbu began to go into shock.

Itachi looked impatiently at Tsunade. "Tsunade!" Tsunade was standing close by. Unmoving. "Tsunade!" Blood began to pour from a razor thin line around her neck. Then her head peeled off and tumbled to the floor. The headless body remained standing for a moment. Then it fell to its knees and pitched forward.

Another Anbu freaked out. "What the fuck was that?"

Itachi cursed under his breath as he applied pressure to the injured Anbu besides him. "Laser beam. Stay out of its way...it'll cut straight through you."

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome, Naraku, and Naruto were trying to force the heavy steel blast door open.

"We've got to get them out of there!" Kagome's voice was frantic and high pitched.

Naraku turned to Shin. "Help them!"

Shin ignored them as he franticly worked on the computer in front of him. "I'm trying!"

-.- -.- -.-

Itachi tied a bloody tourniquet around the remains of the Anbu's hand. "Stay conscious...you're going into shock ... you have to stay awake!" Another Anbu shouted gaining his attention.

"It's coming back!" The thin line of laser light streaked back towards them. This time it was just above ankle level, like a trip wire. The Anbu tried to jump over it, but the laser adjusted, suddenly rising in height.

He was caught off guard and sliced neatly in two. He staid conscious for a couple of seconds. Just long enough to see the horror of his own body falling apart.

Only Itachi had survived. He leapt into the air and stayed there, his feet braced against both sides of the wall corridor. The laser beam had passed right underneath him, only just missing. A knife that hung from his belt was cut clean in two. The metal blade clattered to the steel floor below.

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome, Naruto, and Naraku were still struggling with the blast door. They were starting to inch it open. But the laser wire was coming back for Itachi.

"Shut it down! Shut it down!" Kagome's voice was near desperation now. She grunted as she adds more force behind her pushing, the thought of Itachi dying froze the blood in her veins.

"Almost there." Streams of letters and numbers shot across his computer screens as Shin closed in on the override code.

-.- -.- -.-

Itachi readied himself as the laser wire was racing towards bun. It was at waist level, but could alter at any moment.

Itachi stood his ground. Ready to pit his lightning fast reflexes against those of the computer. His concentration was absolute.

At the last second, the single thin laser wire switched to a grid. Fifty interlocking laser lines fanning a deadly net from which there was no escape.

"Shit!" It was literally seconds away from killing him.


	11. Chapter 11

Suddenly Shin's laptop beeped! It had cracked the override code. The grid shut down instantly mere millimeters away from Itachi. The door slowly swung open. Every was to afraid to even breath.

Itachi glared at Shin's tense form as he slowly walked out of the corridor steeping over his fallen teammates as he did so. He brushed past the others.

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief and started to breath once again once he was in front of a very nervous Shin. "Next time you get it right the first time." He whispered deadly into his ear. " _You're lucky she wasn't in there or I would have had to kill you._ " Shin gulped as he nodded.

"Good now let's continue the mission." He turned to look at the others, mainly Kagome, "Stay here until I give you the all clear." They nodded. He once again entered the corridor this time he made it to the other end of it safely. After which he motioned for the others to make their way towards him.

Kagome was the only one to move, for some reason she felt she could trust him. Bedsides if what Shin said was true she had just cause to trust him. Shin would follow as well but he knew Itachi was very close to losing his cool.

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome looked around the chamber in awe. They were currently in the heart of the hive, in the Red Queens chambers. Itachi smiled slightly at her awed expression. Then again this was her 'first' time in the chamber that she could remember that was.

He approaches a computer console at the centre of the room. Circular in design, and just over four feet high, it resembles a giant chess piece.

A cute eight year old girl walked out from the shadows. She was furious, her hands were clenched in anger. "Get out! You shouldn't be in here!"

Itachi walked straight up to the Girl and then stepped clean through her! He didn't even bother to look at Kagome as he explained what the girl was. "She's just a holographic representation of the Red Queen."

_"You have to get out!"_

Itachi began to set up the missile launcher, oblivious to the angry youth at his side. "She's based Head programmer's daughter. Rin." Kagome nodded accepting what he said. She did after all have no reason not to believe him.

_"I wouldn't advise this."_

Itachi didn't even look up from his task. "Don't listen to anything she says." His voice was bland.

The Red Queen also known as Rin huffed as he talked about her like she wasn't even there and decided to try reasoning with Kagome. She did 'like' her more than Itachi. "Disabling me will result in loss of primary power."

Itachi dismissed her words with a wave of the hand as he continued setting up the device. "She's only trying to deceive us..." He felt slightly bad that he was going to have to 'kill' The Red Queen but that was only because he knew the young girl she was modeled after.

_"You'll never be able to reach the surface. Everything I have done had been for your own good."_

He stiffened as he glared at the young girl, "Our own good? You killed all of these people for their own good?" He looked away from her and at the ground, " _You killed my younger brother for his own good?_ "

Kagome gasped at his words and moved to stand next to him, she felt she  _needed_  to comfort him. She silently stood behind of him and placed her hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry." He laughed sadly, "So am I. I was the one to get him a job here. I thought he would be well taken care of. I was wrong."

Kagome ran her hand though his hair, "It's not your fault." He shook his head, "Yes it was. He's dead because of me."

Rin looked away in guilt,  _"I had no choice."_  Itachi looked up at her, "And neither do I." He pulled away from Kagome and positioned the rocket launcher straight at the Queen's eye.

 _"I implore you. Please ..."_  Rin's voice was pleading it almost human, like a vulnerable young girl.  _"…please!"_

Itachi's finger tightened. Fourteen pounds of pressure on a fifteen pound trigger. He was going to do it.

All the humanity suddenly vanished from her voice.  _"You're all going to die down here. Just like him!"_

Itachi fired. The missile penetrated the console. The image of Rin and then the lights in the chamber flickered and die.

For a second, inky darkness washed over them. Then the emergency lighting kicked in.

The new menacing half light was accompanied by a heavy metallic pounding noise. Distant at first but it gradually drew closer. Like a giant's footsteps slowly approaching.

"What was that?" Kagome jumped lightly and moved closer to Itachi in the dimly lit room.

Itachi smiled softly and moved so his arm was brushing against hers in an act of comfort, like she did for him earlier for him. "Most of the doors down here have magnetic locking. When we cut the main power, we popped them all wide open. Getting out should be a lot easier than coming in."

She nodded in understanding. "I hope so."


	12. Chapter 12

Shin smiled as Kagome and Itachi rejoined them. Shin lifted his hand to catch a box Itachi threw at him.

Naraku looked at it in curiosity, "What's that?" Before he could answer Naruto did, "That's her 'heart' it's what control's her emotions. Without it she's powerless to do anything."

Everyone looked at him in surprise. "Wait you mean she's still 'alive'?" Shin answered this time. "Are you kidding? Do you know how much she cost? They'll try to put her right, or at least figure out what went wrong."

Naruto snorted, "So it's okay for a computer to kill people. You just send her to the shrink. If she were a person, she'd fry."

Shin smiled coldly, "People don't cost as much as she did."

Itachi stiffened yet made no comment on his choice of words.

Naruto scoff'ed, "That's a real nice attitude you have."

Shin ignored him. "With the main power down, there'll be no ventilation." He started to pack up his equipment. "The air's going to start getting stale pretty soon."

Itachi nodded at everyone as they started to leave the room. "Everybody stay close."

Itachi took the lead as they headed through the giant room. But the deeper they go, the greater the sense of unease. The specimens seemed to be watching them. Leering at them.

Naraku slowed down, almost stopped. Without thinking, he was holding his breath. Suddenly a clawed hand was on his neck. Digging in, biting into the flesh.

He screamed and turned to face the horror. Only to breath a breath of relief when he realized it was just Sango. "What the fuck were you doing?"

Sango mentioned for him to be quite. "Quiet."

They all listened.

The shuffle of feet? And a low moaning noise. Almost human. Almost.

"What is that?" Naruto's voice was full of question and a touch of dread.

Kagome and Naruto shared a look. This was the same noise they had heard through the air vents. Only now it was closer. Now it was in the room with them.

Sango pointed ahead of them.

"There." She saw movement behind one of the specimen tanks and pointed over there as well.

"Over there." Miroku shook his head.

"No…there!" Miroku saw another one. Whatever they were, they were all around.

Naraku looked around in fear. "What the fuck is down here?"

Itachi hardens his face and looked around."Whatever it was we're not waiting to find out. Now move!" They started moving towards the exit.

Sango smiled seeing they were near the exit. "We're almost there…keep going!" The exit was just ahead. Something big moved behind one of the tanks.

Miroku let loose a burst from his M16. The tank shattered sending broken plexi and fluid everywhere. They still hadn't seen their pursuers. "Run!"

Itachi growled as his highly trained Anbu started acting like scared children but he did as they suggested and started running. All the while keeping a close eye on Kagome, Naraku, and Naruto. Technically they could be classified as civilians. As such it was his job to keep them safe.

Kagome was sprinting ahead, straight into a figure in a lab coat. A woman. Her tongue was swollen and bloated. Her death was painful and slow. You could see it in what was left of her face.

Kagome screamed as the undead woman lunged at her. The Woman's actions were slow and jerky, but Kagome was caught by surprise and knocked to the ground. She struggled to get up, but the weight of the undead woman kept her pinned to the floor.

Kagome looked into the woman's dead eyes, which staring straight back at her. There was no life left there, but there was something else. A terrible, terrible hunger.

Itachi quickly ran over to her and kicked the woman off. She rolled over and began to get up. Broken ribs meant nothing to her, pain meant nothing to her.

Sango ran up and emptied a round into her chest as Itachi helped Kagome up and got her away from the woman. Sango noticed that the woman won't stay down and emptied another round and then another, then another. Still the woman advanced. Bullet meant nothing.

The M16 dry clicked. Empty.

Shin moved to help when two more undead loomed behind him. One grabbed his arms, the other his hair. He struggled to break free, but couldn't.

"Help me!" But Miroku couldn't hear over the sound of his own gunfire. He was blasting away at the rising tide of undead.

Kagome sat with her back against one of the tanks. In a state of shock. Traumatized. Itachi sat next to her his gun trained on the undead ready to shoot any that get to close to them.

Unbeknownst to them a figure was moving behind the tank, circling towards them. Its monstrous face distorted even more by the coned plexi glass.

-.- -.- -.-

Sango struggled with the undead woman. Trying to hold her off. To keep her teeth from her throat.

-.- -.- -.-

Naruto glared at Naraku who was standing next to him looking on in a stupor. "Help them!"

Naruto was helpless, his hands were still cuffed. Naraku surveyed the scene.

Kagome was in shock, Itachi was next to her shooting anything that got to close to them yet unable to help the others because he was busy protecting Kagome. Shin and Sango were pinned by the undead and Miroku was nowhere to be seen. They were losing, badly.

He bolted for the exit.

-.- -.- -.-

One of the undead bit down hard on Shin's shoulder. He screamed in pain.

-.- -. -.-

Sango struggled with the undead woman. She had Sango by the hair. "Bitch!" Sango grabbed her by the head and twisted. The woman's neck snapped with a hollow crack and she fell to the ground. Unmoving.

-.- -.- -.-

The figure behind Kagome and Itachi came into view. They were still unaware of the danger. It was Kouga. A fire axe dangled uselessly from his right hand. His face was bloated and swollen with death. He reached for Kagome. His fingers were inches from her skin.

-.- -.- -.-

Two more undead surrounded Shin. The four of them had wrestled him to the ground and were biting in a frenzy at his arms and chest.

One of them wrestled a .45 auto from Shin's belt, but didn't know what to do with it.

Shin smirked. "I'll take that." He snatched the gun from the undead's hand. The undead creature looked up in surprise as Shin blew the back of its head off. Surprisingly, there was very little blood. Inside, the creatures were dry, withered husks.

A scream brought his attention to Kagome. Kouga had a hand on her throat. He dropped the fire axe and secured his other hand around her wind pipe. He moved to help her but noticed that Naruto needed help as well…he was closer to Naruto then her…damn it! He grit his teeth as he turned his back on her and rushed to help Naruto, he was after all defenseless being handcuffed and what not.

-.- -.- -.-

Itachi quickly turned to her and carefully took aim And squeezed. Click. Empty. Shit! He moved to rip Kouga off of her but was tackled to the ground by another undead. Even so he struggled to free her but it was a losing battle. He grunted in pain as the undead on his back bit into his shoulder.

"Kagome!" Kagome was slammed against the plexi tank. The last of her breath leaving her body. She was passing out. She felt Koug's saliva on her face. Rank and fetid.

But still she didn't move. The trauma had triggered some kind of recall in her mind.

_I can help you get the virus. Access codes, security plans, the works._

Kagome was forced against the plexi tank. Kouga's hands were around her neck. Choking her.

BAM! His head was suddenly pinned against the Plexiglas by the fire axe. The axe had gone clear through his skull, in one ear and out the other. His hands dropped away from Kagome's throat, but Kouga's body remained standing. His head was pinned to the specimen tank.

"T-Thank you." Naraku nodded smugly as Itachi now free of his attackers limped towards them, badly wounded.

He grit his teeth as the pain tore through his body, it wasn't just that he was bit, on no add in the fact that the undead had a knack for breaking things as they stumbled about said things tended to get stuck in their flesh.

Two of his attackers had sharp scrap metal sticking of them. Said metal tore into him. He now had a long gash across his back but he would not let it slow him down.

"You came back." Naraku glared at Itachi's hidden insult yet nodded his head.

"Yeah, I didn't know the door code." Heedless of his reasons for coming back Kagome stared at him with thankful eyes, the again anyone who had ever been saved by someone knew the rush of gratitude that blinded them from anything negative about their savior.

Sango appeared next to them a grimace on her face.

"Hate to break up the husband/wife thing, but let's get the fuck out of here. There's more of them on the way." They nodded before racing for the exit. Kagome and a reluctant Naraku helping Itachi along, it seemed he also had a few cracked ribs and a sprained ankle. Behind them, a dozen undead were slowly following.

Up ahead they heard gunfire and moments later they saw Shin by the exit, holding a whole band of undead at bay. Shin grinned at them as he ran past them to hold off the horde following behind them as Sango took his place.

He grinned at her. "Aim for the head. That seems to work!" She nodded. "Thanks for the tip. Be careful!"

"Always am! Miroku knew the code!" And with that he disappeared around the corner his guns firing a blaze of bullet, buying them time.

Sango watched Miroku appeared out of nowhere and ran ahead to the door, after coping a feel, and tried to type the entry code. The sound of gunfire was deafening…yet Shin seemed to have died down…yet they could not investigate they were stuck.

Sango was losing her patience. "What's taking so long?" Miroku huffed. "I'm trying!" His hands were shaking so hard, he couldn't hit the keys. "Out of the way." Sango pushed him aside. "What's the code?" Miroku shook as he told her. "Six, six, seven." Sango punched in the code.

"See how easy that was?" The door slid smoothly open to reveal…a dozen undead! Their hands reaching for Sango. Grabbing her, dragging her into the dark void beyond.

Sango screamed.

"No!" Miroku's heart stopped.

"Out of my way!" Miroku ran forward, two guns in his hands, both blazing. Sango had almost disappeared under a mass of rotting undead limbs.

"Oh my God! Help me! Miroku!" Other hands reach for her and try to drag her away from the undead. It was Kagome and Itachi. Playing tug of war with the undead, and Sango was the rope.

But it was hopeless and Sango was dragged deeper into the ravening horde.

Miroku paled as she started to disappear into the horde of undead.

"Sango! No!" Miroku plunged into the doorway after her. His hand grabbed hers, and for a moment she held on.

"Miroku…don't let go! Please! Don't let go!" Then one of the undead got a hold of Miroku's hand and took a nice big bite.

"Aaaaah!" He let go and Sango disappeared from sight. All that could be heard were her screams.

Miroku rushed to go after her. "NO!" He flung himself into the horde of undead he would not to lose Sango to them.

Shin who had rejoined them would have flung himself into the horde of undead, but the others held him back.

Kagome griped his shirt tightly.

"It's no good." She flinched as she heard their screams of pain.

Shin was furious, Miroku and Sango were like his siblings! They were like hers as well, he was not going to abandon them!

"Let go of me! They need help!" Their screaming stopped.

Tears gather in both Shin's and Kagome's eyes but Kagome knew what had to be done.

"We have to get out of this room." The undead poured into the room. Too many to hold back. And now they moved faster. Excited by the sight of blood. Still Shin would not move.

"Shin…please." She looked him in the eye. Icy calm, despite the ravenous horde that threatened to overwhelm them. "We have to go." Shin finally snapped out of it. Realizing that Sango and Miroku were never coming back. Stunned, he nodded and they move off.

The survivors raced through the room, weaving between the slower moving undead. When something got in their way, Shin leveled it with a burst from his M16. His anger rising.

"Motherfuckers! Dirty motherfuckers!" It seemed with the death of Sango and Miroku something snapped inside of him.

Plexiglas tanks shattered and exploded as stray bullets crashed into them. And in all the chaos, the group began to get separated.


	13. Chapter 13

Naraku gasped as he slammed a heavy steel door behind them. They were back where they started. Naraku looked around. Only now did he realize that some of their group was missing. "Where are the others? Where the fuck were the others?" Kagome, Itachi and Naruto were gone.

Shin crused as he un-strapped his Kevlar vest and let it fall to the ground. His entire body was covered with bite shaped marks. The bruises were already turning an ugly yellow color. He slumped to the ground, his back to the wall. A nice solid wall. No chance of anything creeping up on him.

On the other side of the door we bear dozens of fists pounding.

Naraku looked around the room a semi crazed glint in his eyes. "Well I'm not going to end up a Goddamn Happy Meal for one of those fucks!"

Shin glared darkly at him. "Whatever they are, you could stop them with a shot to the head."

Naraku glared back at him oblivious to his feelings. " _Whatever they are_? It's pretty goddamn obvious what they are. Lab coats, badges. Those people used to work here."

Shin looked at him dead paned. "All the people working here are dead." His voice was tired.

Naraku glared. "Well that wasn't stopping them from walking around! Where did they come from? Why didn't we see them on the way in?"

Shin groaned as he let his head fall into his hands that were resting on his knees. "When we cut the power, we unlocked all the doors. We let Pandora out of the box."

Naraku rubbed his hand over his eyes. "Those things could be all over the place. We're never going to make it to the surface." The moment was broken by the sound of a gun being racked. Shin was checking his assault rifle. "Twenty seven rounds. You?"

Naraku checked his. "Six in the clip…one in the breech. We were so fucked." Not too eloquent, but it seemed pretty accurate.

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome realized that for the first time, she was all alone in the dark. And it was terrifying.

She looked around only to find she was in some sort of security room. One with empty cages many had holes in them, chewed straight through the mesh. What would make a dog do that?

She cautiously made her way down the half lit corridor. Then suddenly she stopped. Sensing that she wasn't alone.

Then she heard it. A sharp clicking sound. Nails on a cement floor.

In the shadows she noticed a dark shape moving.

A low demonic growl tore through the silence making her blood freeze in her veins.

"Easy there I Good doggie." The Doberman advanced into a shaft of light. But this was like no dog she'd ever seen before. Its eyes were glazed. Its flesh decaying. It was an undead doggie.

"Oh hell." The Doberman charged and Kagome did the only sensible thing. She ran.

The Dog leapt at her, all teeth and claws. She dodged and dived into one of the cages for protection. She slammed the mesh door in the hellhound's face.

She wedged door shut. She was trapped in the cage, and the door wouldn't hold for long. But it didn't matter anyway, because out of the shadows stepped a second Doberman.

Already in the cage with her!

"Fuck!" The second Undead Dog jumped at her, knocking her to the ground. She was no match for its savagery. It was a struggle just to keep its jaws from her throat.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the first dog was slowly forcing the cage door open. It would be through in moments.

They wanted blood, her blood.

The dog on top of Kagome forced its jaws around her face. Suddenly she saw flashes of color and sound. Memories. The schematics of the dog, biological cross sections details of the dog's skeleton, a weak point identified on the Doberman's neck.

Her hands were already there. Guided by instinct.

SNAP!

The Undead Dog stopped moving. She's killed it with her bare hands.

CRASH!

The cage door bursts open. The other dog charged. Ferocious, unstoppable. In one slick acrobatic move, Kagome leapt into the air and boosted herself through a hole in the cage roof.

The dog jumped after her, but Kagome was just out of reach.

She rolled over the cage roof, dropped to the ground and slammed the cage door shut. Right in the Hellhound's face. She slammed the door bolt home. The dog was trapped, helpless in the cage.

Kagome smiled and turned away, smack dab into another undead! Where the hell was Itachi when you needed him?

It was the security guard who used to tend the dogs. Jaken. Kagome recognized him from his name tag.

"Easy there Jaken." The undead guard lunged for her, but Kagome was lightning fast, as though someone else had taken possession of her body. She weaved through his arms, lifted the sidearm from his holster and drilled a bullet through his forehead.

As the undead Jaken collapsed, more memories flashed in Kagome's minds. In ultra fast succession she saw a dozen schematics of a handgun. In two seconds flat, she had ejected the magazine, checked the number of bullet, slammed the mag home and chambered another round.

All before Jaken's body had hit the ground.

Kagome was stunned by all this sudden killer instinct. She stared at herself, gun in hand. "Damn! I'm a tough bitch."

Itachi chuckled at her statement. "That you are."

She glared at him. "Now you decide to show up…better late than never I guess."


	14. Chapter 14

Shin stared at the door. It was beginning to buckle under the weight of the undead. He suddenly turned back to Naraku an idea hitting him. "It's a long shot…but there might be someone who can help us." His voice was hesitant.

"Who?" He took the box from his pocket and held it up. Naraku's eyes widened in understanding. "You're kidding right?" His voice was laced with disbelief.

Shin shook his head. "If anyone can find a way out of here it would be her." Naraku looked at him like he was stupid. "No. Absolutely not. Have I been the only one paying attention? That homicidal bitch tried to  _kill_  us all."

Shin sighed loudly, his patience waning, they didn't have all day. " _That homicidal bitch_  may be the only one who can tell us what the hell's going on down here. I know it's not ideal but it's the only chance we have." His eyes were hard making Naraku swallow back his complaints. "You said that…if you switched her back on…you could control her?"

Shin smirked. "If she says or does anything we don't like…" He indicated the switch at the base of the Box. "It's the flip of a switch and the bitch fries." He grinned mostly to reassure Naraku, deep down he was worried very much so.

-.- -.- -.-

Using a Guillotine blade Naruto broke one of the links confining him. Now free from the cuffs he started to make his way through an office space. The place was trashed. Smeared with dirt and blood.

He reached Sasuke's cubicle and sat down at his desk. After a moment he began to methodically check the desk drawers.

Naruto turned, sensing something. There was someone in here with him. He craned his head around the side of the cubicle. Nothing there. He went back to the desk and redoubles his efforts. He found the foam lined carrying case and snapped it open. Empty. He frowned and put it back where he found it.

Naruto jimmied the locked drawer and it popped open. He rifled through the papers inside. All useless. Then he stopped. He found a framed picture. Him and Sasuke arms slung around each other in a brotherly pose, smiling at the camera.

He gave the photograph a long look.

A sudden noise made Naruto turn. An office chair had been knocked over by the staggering monstrosity in front of him. It was Sasuke. Back from the dead.

Naruto still held the photo in his hand. The two of them arm in arm. Sasuke was alive and healthy. But the reality stood above him. Sasuke the undead. His face distorted into a grotesque mask. The agony of suffocation.

"Teme…" Sasuke stared at him. Making no attempt to attack.

Naruto was reflected in his pupils. The undead Sasuke groaned. Was there a hint of recognition?

Slowly Sasuke raised his hand to his cheek and touched him lightly. Tenderly. Then in a split second he sunk his nails into his flesh gorging three lines down his cheek.

"Aaaaah!" Sasuke lunged forward pushing Naruto back over the desk. His teeth snapped at his throat. Naruto fought back, but Sasuke was surprisingly strong. He slugged Sasuke across the face, breaking Sasuke's teeth and his knuckles, but Sasuke didn't flinch. He didn't hesitate for a moment. He wanted blood.

Slowly, inevitably, he forced his mouth around Naruto's windpipe. His broken teeth-ready to tear out a jagged chunk of raw flesh. When suddenly he stiffened and then fell to the ground.

To reveal Itachi standing behind him with Kagome behind him. The heavy "Love was…" paperweight was in his hands. He let it fall to the floor as his eyes took in Sasuke's fallen form.

Naruto struggled to get to his feet. "YOU TEME!" He launched himself at Itachi who just stood there and made no attempt to defend himself.

If it wasn't for Kagome's quick and sudden reflexes Itachi would have let Naruto pummel him. "Naruto CALM DOWN!" He struggled against her yet he quickly lost his steam as his gaze landed on the fallen form of Sasuke. He pulled himself out of her arms and kneeled down next to his fallen form. "Sasuke…teme…"

Kagome looked down at Naruto then at Itachi. Both brothers to the fallen young man. Both feeling the pain of a sibling lost. Yet one felt it more than the other, one had to kill the one they loved.

Lying beside the body was the broken picture frame. Sasuke and Naruto. Arms slung about each other smiling like friends, like brothers. Unbeknownst to them under that picture was another picture.

This one was of a younger Itachi and Sasuke. Itachi looked to be thirteen Sasuke five or six. Sasuke was leaning on Itachi's back. His eyes happy as he smiled. He was having the best time in the world, he was with his brother, his hero.

Itachi was the only one to notice this picture and he picked it up with shaking hands. He looked at it sadly before putting it in his pocket. "Who was he to you?"

Naruto looked at him with sad eyes and barely choked back his tears. "My friend…my brother…"

Kagome looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry." She was. But at the same time she wished he would recompose himself. He wasn't the only one in pain, he was just making it worse…

Naruto glared at her, ready to take out his anger on her even though it wasn't her fault. "I could have talked to him…Reasoned with him." She shook her head. "Not with these things." He glared at her harder. "They're not 'things', they're people! They have mothers, fathers, sisters, bothers…brothers."

Itachi flinched every time the word 'brothers' was mentioned and it pissed her off that he could be oblivious. She looked at him coldly. "Stop your whining. You can't think of them that way anymore. Beside's it's not like you were really brothers."

He gaped at her but decided to let it drop. There was no reasoning with a cold bitch like her. "You know something?" He stared at her not liking this new icy, bitchy composure. "When you remember who you are…I have the feeling we're not going to get along."

She smiled sadly. "I know." She turned away from his stunned form to stand by Itachi's side.


	15. Chapter 15

Shin grunted as he plugged Rin's 'heart' into the holographic projector on his computer. The chess squares illuminated and a life size 3D image of the teenage Queen flickered into life beside them.

You could practically feel her smugness. "Ah, there you are. I did warn you." She was about to continue when Shin cut her off. "Let's get something straight from what I understand you're a state of the art Artificial Intelligence which means you consider yourself a living, thinking being, correct?" She nodded. "Yes…that was correct."

He smirked. "And this box was the last remnants of your sorry ass. So let me make one thing clear. You try to fuck with us in any way and I will personally grind your super gigabyte punk ass into dust. Finito! Comprende?"

"I speak fifty—seven languages." He rolled his eyes. "Good. So now you could answer some questions. Number one…what the fuck were you people doing down here?"

She answered as if she's telling the time. "The usual thing. Gene splicing, toxicology, bioengineering. All in service of mankind's one great goal finding new and exciting ways to wipe itself out."

He glared at her. "Aren't we the witty little microchip?" She smiled at him. "Merely here to serve." The argument was interrupted by the undead. Banging hard against the door to the Specimen Room.

He sighed as he pushed his anger away, something that came much more easily without Naruto around. "What are those things out there?" She blinked at him innocently, the cocky little bitch. "Things?"

Naraku looked at her like she was retarded. "Drooling, staggering…bad complexions, worse attitude." She blinked as if just remembering what he was talking about. "I presume you were referring to the retro animated weapons systems."

Naraku looked at her stupefied. "The what?" It was her turn to look at him like he was stupid. "In human mythology, I believe they were traditionally referred to as the undead."

Naraku threw his arms up in the arm. "Zombies! Fucking Zombies!"

Shin ignored him as he looked at her dead paned. "Explain."

She did as she was asked. "Even in death, the human body still remains active. Hair and fingernails continue to grow, new cells are produced, and the brain itself holds a small electrical charge that takes months to dispute. Much of the research in the Hive was devoted to those electronic signals left in the brain…fragments of memory that decay over time. A virus, T—3 was developed. This T-virus provides a massive jolt to those trace electronic impulses. Put quite simply, it reanimates the body."

Shin was disgusted. "You're bringing the dead back to life?" His voice was filled with disbelief.

"Not fully. The subjects have the simplest of motor functions. Perhaps a little memory…virtually no intelligence. Driven by the basest of impulses…the most basic of needs."

Naraku looked at her like a child waiting for the end of a story. "Which is?" He was afraid to hear the answer but he  _needed_  to. "The need to feed."

Shin felt his stomach clench in fear. "And what do these things feed on?" His voice was barely a whisper. "They feed on what mankind has always wanted to prey upon, what you have always sought to destroy. Yourselves."

Naraku looked disgusted. "They eat people? That's inhuman." She smirked lightly. "On the contrary. I find it perfectly in keeping with human behavior. Stripped of culture, intelligence, reason…they are your true primal selves. The evil that dwells within all of you." The computer smiled. "It's quite poetic really."

Shin sat down on the cold floor. "Oh my God." He held his face in his hands. "I was trying to keep them isolated, but I'm afraid you've changed all that."

Shin shook his head. "Why develop such a thing?" He looked up at her in anger. "To use as a weapon of course. Imagine it an enemy nation infected with T—3. The idea of having your own mother and father rise up out of the grave against you. To be attacked by your own flesh and blood. The psychological impact alone would be devastating."

Naraku spoke up confused as to why things got so out of control. "If they're a weapon, you must be able to control them." She didn't miss a beat. "When the enemy surrenders, the infected would be sprayed with an anti-toxin, T-4."

Shin filed that information away for later. "And that would kill them?" She blinked as if rolling around the answer. "It would prevent further transmission. The remaining undead would have to be dispatched individually. Severing the top of the spinal column or massive trauma to the brain are the most effective methods."

Naraku groaned. "We were so fucked."

Shin didn't take his eyes off of Rin. "You said that already."

Naraku glared at him. "Well now I really mean it."


	16. Chapter 16

Kagome, Itachi, and Naruto picked their way cautiously through the devastation. Kagome walked next to Itachi who had been quite since leaving the offices. She turned to look at Naruto. "What were you looking for back there?" He kept his eyes on the floor. "Evidence. You saw the kind of horrors they had in that specimen room. Well that's just the tip of the iceberg."

Kagome groaned, how could something like this happen? "How could they do all of this without someone knowing?"

Naruto looked up at her for a second before looking back at the ground. "Like who?" She glanced at him. "The government."

Naruto laughed. "Of course the government knew. Just like they know about the genetically modified meat in your burgers, the D.N.A. enhanced corn in your taco shells. They know about all this shit. They just don't get involved. They leave it to companies like Sound. Buy the end product if it works out, deny all responsibility if it doesn't. We wanted concrete evidence for the press. We were going to smuggle out a sample of their new viral weapon."

"And?" Kagome gazed at him while Itachi looked at his hands silently.

Naruto looked around. "We didn't cause this if that's what you mean."

Kagome blinked. "Then who did?" He looked at her and Itachi in the eyes. "My friend had two contacts within the Hive. People I never met. They were supposed to help us get samples of the T-virus. I think they double crossed us instead."

"They did not." Both Kagome and Itachi look at Itachi confused. "How do you know?"

Itachi looked at him coolly. "I was one of them."

Naruto glared at him as he grabbed him by his shirt and pinned him against a wall. "You!"

Kagome moved to interfere yet a hard glance from Itachi made her stop. "Yes, me."

Naruto got in his face, it was mere inches from Itachi's. "Why would you of all people help us?"

Itachi looked into Naruto's eyes. "Sasuke was my brother."

Naruto let go of Itachi like he was burned. "Liar!"

Itachi sighed as he pulled the photo from his pocket and tossed it at Naruto's feet. His eyes ablaze with anger and sadness. "See for yourself."

Naruto picked up the photo with shaking fingers. "H-how?"

Itachi sighed as he looked away from him. "Our parents died when we were young. I joined the Anbu to support us and raised him until he turned eighteen. After which I got him a job here. I thought he would be safe, well taken care of…I was wrong…he's dead." He looked away tears in his eyes. "I failed him."

Kagome silently moved to stand next to him and placed her hand on his arm. "Itachi." He looked at her solemnly. "Kagome."

Naruto felt guilt rise within him, he had let his anger cloud his mind and lashed out at Itachi when he was just as much a victim as everyone else. He sighed as he moved to stand in front of them and held out the photo to Itachi. "I am sorry…I let my anger cloud my judgment. It seems we both lost a brother to this corporation."

Itachi nodded and accepted the photo form Naruto. "This was why we need to help each other." His eyes flicked to Kagome. "We both have something needed to be protected  _now_."

Naruto nodded. "That we do." They smiled at each other as they come to an understanding.

Kagome looked on in confusion, what the hell just happened here? She shook her head, either way it seemed they were all on the same page now.

-.- -.- -.-

Shin continued his interrogation of Rin. "Why kill everyone in the Hive?" Her reply was quick. "Because there was a leak. T—3 escaped an unplanned pattern of infection began. Once the virus was loose, I couldn't allow anyone to leave the Hive. So I took the appropriate action."

Shin glared at her, whatever she said did not justify her killing all those people. "You butchered them." She didn't even bat an eye at him. "If one infected human had escaped from the Hive…" A green holographic projection sprung up in front of the Box. It was a map of the USA. A tiny pin prick of red appeared in the map. "The infection would have spread to cover the United States within 13 days." The pin prick grew rapidly until it became a tide of red which swept dramatically across the map.

"Canada and South America in 27 days…" The map expanded until eventually it became an entire globe. And the faster the map grew, the faster the red tide flew. "…worldwide infection in less than two months." The holographic globe, now submerged beneath a blood red sea, flickered and disappeared. "So I took steps."

Shin blinked. "Steps?" Shin questioned quietly almost as if in a trance. They were stunned. Silenced by the enormity of their situation.

"If I might make a suggestion. You have sufficient ammunition. One bullet apiece to the spinal column should suffice."

Shin looked at her like she was crazy. "What are you saying?" She merely blinked lazily. "Merely that I think suicide would be preferable to what awaits you."

Naraku looked at her in confusion. "But we're not infected." She ignored him and looked at Shin. "Just one bite, one scratch from these creatures would infect you. You could live a long and happy life, but when you die…you become one of them." Shin looked down at his bloody hand. "This facility housed five hundred technicians and support staff. Five hundred against five. Odds of a hundred to one."

Shin glared at her. "We can do the math." She ignored him. "Logic dictates that you won't leave here alive." Naraku growled. "Fuck logic!" The computer smiled at the irony. "Easy for you to say."

Shin stepped forward. "Listen to me…we're getting out of here and you're going to help us."

Rin stared at them coldly. "If you insist but those of you who become infected… I can't allow you to leave." He glared at her. "Understood!" He switched Rin off. The holograph flickered and died.

Naraku looked at him confused. "What did she mean?" Shin bit out a gruff. "What?" Naraku looked at him suspiciously.

" _Those of you who become infected...I can't allow you to leave_." Shin shook his head. "Who cares. As soon as we get near the surface, we're shutting that bitch down. Permanently."

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome, Itachi and Naruto advanced through the gloom. Every shadow hid a potential horror. Kagome looked around her eyes drinking in every detail. "I swear we've been here before." They stopped at a four way junction.

" _Kagome."_

" _Yes?"_

" _What have I told you?"_

" _To always pay attention to my surroundings…"_

" _Why?"_

" _Because if I don't I can easily get lost."_

" _If you get lost you could end up dying down here looking for the way out. I don't want that. It would make me very…sad."_

" _I never want you to be sad."_

" _Then promise me."_

" _I promise to pay more attention…Itachi."_

Kagome shook her head to clear the fog that covered it and looked at Naruto. "This place is a labyrinth."

Naruto groaned. "I hope not. Every good labyrinth has a monster at its heart." Kagome stared at him blankly, her mind replaying her most recent memory, yet still managing to listen to his babbling. "Didn't they teach you about the Minotaur at school?"

Kagome gave him a dead paned look as Itachi rolled his eyes at the other man's stupidity. "How would I know?"

Naruto laughed awkwardly and turned to Kagome. "Sorry. How's the memory?" She sighed. "I remember some things, training, basic instinctual stuff, and other  _things_  but not all of it."

Itachi looked away as her eyes bore into his. She looked away from him a second later and shrugged as she smiled at Naruto. "Stress seems to bring things back."

Naruto laughed at the irony. "Stress huh?" He blinked as she held up a hand. "Quiet!" She suddenly halted. Sensing something up ahead. "There's something moving behind that door."

Naruto looked at her and whispered quietly. " _How do you know_?"

Kagome eased the safety off her gun. "I know."

Itachi nodded. "She's right." Itachi and Kagome took position beside the door while Naruto watched their backs. She got ready to kick it in.

Kagome gulped. "On three." Her palms were sweaty. "One…" He trigger finger itched. "…Two…" The door burst open to reveal Naraku and Shin.

Shin threw his hands up as if to protect himself. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! It's us." It was hard to tell who was more shocked. Kagome, Itachi and Naruto, or Shin and Naraku.

Kagome, Itachi, and Naruto lowered their guns. From behind Naraku walked a little girl dressed in red. She smiled at Kagome. Kagome smiled back at her. "Hello Rin." Rin smiled up at her. "I'm here to help…this time."


	17. Chapter 17

A holographic floor plan appeared above the Box. "The Hive." In 3D the underground complex bared an unsoundly resemblance to a spiral of D.N.A.

Itachi nodded. "Where were we?" She pointed at the scan."The red dots." Five tiny red figures at the base of the hive blinked.

Naraku snorted. "Right at the bottom…of course."

Rin spoke again as if she hadn't heard him. "For maximum efficiency I would suggest the following this route." She highlighted a way through the holographic maze. "Through the storage units on this level, to an access tunnel here. That will get you close to the surface. Then you'll only have to cut through the medical labs and you'll be back at the loading platform."

Itachi nodded in acceptance. "Sounds simple."

Shin chambered a round with a loud metallic snap. "Sure."

Kagome ignored him and faced Rin. "What about those "things"?"

Itachi looked at her completely ignoring Naraku who was glaring at them to hurry up. "The Queen has sensors throughout the Hive she can tell us where they were."

Rin spoke up. "I'm afraid not. My primary sensors are thermal. Because the creatures are dead, their body temperature is negligible. To me they're virtually invisible."

Naraku sighed loudly. "Great." Itachi ignored him. "What about your motion sensors?" She frowned lightly. "Inoperative." He arched an eyebrow at her. "Why?"

Rin looked at him like he's stupid. "In case it has escaped your notice, so far today I've been attacked by a supercomputer, had the majority of my files corrupted and then scarcely thirty minutes ago, you yourself fired an uranium tipped shell clean through my main frame. It's been…stressful. So pardon me if I'm not functioning at full capacity."

Shin glared at her. "Well if you.."

Itachi sent him a warning glare. "Ugh that's enough…let's just get moving!" They all started to move out but Kagome called them to a stop. "Wait."

Itachi looked at her for an explanation. "What was it?"

Kagome pointed to the five tiny red figures in the maze. "There we are. One, two, three, four, five."

Naruto looked at her in confusion what was she getting at? "So?" She rolled her eyes as she locked hers with Itachi's. He nodded knowing what she was referring to. He sighed as he pointed to the map. "So who's that?" In the centre of the maze, another red dot.

Rin looked confused as she reads off the data. "The heat signature indicates a human male six feet two, 120 pounds."

Naruto scratched his head as he tried to picture him. "Scrawny guy." They stared at the softly pulsing heat signature. It gave nothing away.

Kagome looked at the dot in awe. "How did he survive"? Rin seemed genuinely surprised. "I can't say. My termination methods were very methodical." She realized everyone was staring at her. Kagome, Itachi, and Naruto were glaring at her harshly. "Sorry."

Kagome looked at the map again. The pulsing red dot of the Stranger. "We should help him."

Naraku shook his head in disapproval. "Forget it! He's miles away." Kagome looked to Naruto and Itachi for support.

Naruto looked away knowing his say wouldn't really matter. Itachi sighed as Kagome gave him the puppy dog eyes. This was one time he would put his foot down. "Kagome we can't." Kagome looked away but nodded her head in understanding. They couldn't risk it. Hopefully the other person would be okay.

Shin pated her shoulder. "Besides, he's doing fine by himself. He doesn't need our help." Kagome nodded. "I just hope it stays that way."


	18. Chapter 18

As they marched in silence, Itachi took a pack from his belt and tossed it to Kagome. "Take one, pass the rest around."

She opened up the pack. Inside were a variety of k—rations. She tossed a bar to each of the others.

Naruto looked at the protein bar that was tossed at him. "I can't eat this."

Kagome looked away from him. "I don't feel like eating either, but you have to keep your strength up."

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "No, I mean I  _can't_  eat it. It has animal fat in it. I'm vegetarian."

Naraku looked at him in disbelief. "Do you believe this guy. The shit we're in and he doesn't want to hurt the little animals!" Kagome ignored Naraku as he stomped ahead of them as she tossed Naruto a different bar. "Try this."

It was ten minutes later that Naraku, who was still walking in front of them stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to face the others a smile on his face. "Look…look what I found. Our marching days are done. Now we ride in style."

Everyone gapped, there sitting innocently in front of them was a golf cart. Yes they should have questioned what a golf cart was doing there but hey, you never look a gifted horse in the mouth and this was a very big gifted horse.

Naraku was at the wheel, he was the one who found it and therefore called driving. Shin was riding shotgun seeing as no one wanted to sit next to Naraku as he bragged about his great discovery. Kagome, Itachi and Naruto were happily jammed in the back, Kagome sitting between them. The walls of the tunnel raced by. Above them a network of pipes and cables hung from the ceiling.

Naraku drove gleefully. A handful of undead were spread out sporadically along the corridor. He swerved to hit one of them. It went flying. Naraku laughed. "I always wanted to drive one of these. I just couldn't stand the idea of golf."

The roadkill undead tried to get to its feet. Shin shot it in the head as they raced past. "Fore!" One of the undead managed to catch a hold of the side of the cart. He was immediately jerked off his feet and dragged along the ground.

Shin looked down at the hapless creature bumping along beside the cart. "No riding…" He waited until he had the undead's attention. The monster stared up at Shin with hungry eyes. "…no riding. Without a ticket." Shin shot him point blank in the hand. The undead's fingers lost their grip and he slipped away. The cart's back wheels bumped as they ran over his body.

The tunnel veered sharply to the left. Naraku took the 90 degree turn at high speed. He almost had the cart up on two wheels. Naraku smiled clearly enjoying every second of it. "Yeeeha!"

Naruto looked at Kagome completely ignoring Naraku. "How long is this tunnel anyway?" Kagome took out the Box and Rin flickered back to life. "Enjoying the ride?" Rin's voice was filled with amusement.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "We need to see the map again." The holographic map of the hive appeared above the Box.

Kagome gave Naraku more directions. "You're nearing the end of the tunnel. Round the next corner and you'll be there."

Naruto pointed at the map. "Look…" The red dot of the Stranger was also moving through the hive, headed up. "…whoever it is, they're headed for the surface too."

Naraku glanced over his shoulder at the map. "See…told you he didn't need our help."

Kagome glared at him. "Eyes on the road!" Naraku grumbled under his breath but went back to his driving.

Naruto looked at the map in confusion. "Wait a minute. Something's not right here." He studied the holographic map closely. "Wasn't there more of the Hive?"

"What?" Rin sounded confused.

Itachi nodded. "He's right…the map was bigger last time."

Rin answered petulant. "Perhaps."

As they looked closer, they could see the jagged edges of the holographic map, as though part of it had just been torn off. In fact it was disintegrating before their eyes.

"I can't be expected to remember everything." Rin's voice was a bit sharp.

Naruto was about to question Rin further when Naraku took another corner at high speed. The cart skidded around the turn and slammed into a crowd of undead dozens of them.

They were everywhere. Too many to avoid.

Naraku hauled the wheel to the left, but it was way too late, and they were going way too fast. The cart hit the crowd sending bodies flying. The cart toppled and overturned.


	19. Chapter 19

Naruto was the first to his feet. What he saw was a disaster. Shin was pinned beneath the cart, unable to move. Kagome laid with her back to the tunnel wall, concussed and unmoving. Naraku and Itachi sat a few feet away, dazed. The undead were everywhere. "Get to your feet!" He grabbed Itachi and hauled him up. Itachi groaned in pain, his wounds from earlier protesting in pain yet he did as he was told.

"Get up or we're all dead." The undead were closing in on Shin, easy meat. He saw them coming and began to panic. "I can't move!" His gun was lying on the ground. Just out of reach. "Help me!"

Naruto reached for a gun, but he'd lost his weaponry in the crash. He took a .45 from Naraku's belt. He was still concussed and didn't need it. "Keep them away from me!" One of the undead dropped to his knees and prepared to take a bite out of him. "Fucker!"

Naruto fired. The undead collapsed on top of Shin. "Get him off me…get him off me!" Naruto and Itachi raced to his assistance, firing as they went. Naraku hobbled along behind. They were just about managing to keep the undead at bay.

"My leg…it's trapped under the cart." Naruto and Itachi put their backs against the overturned cart. Naraku helped as best he could and it was not much. Itachi glared at him. This was all his fault. "Nice driving." Naraku glared at him but bit his tongue.

Naruto ignored them and focused on the problem at hand. "One…two…heave!" The cart moved a little, but then rocks back onto Shin's leg. He screamed in pain.

"Again. One…two…heave!" The cart moved a little more. Still not enough. Shin wailed in agony. "For Christ's sake!"

Naruto winced but he knew this was for the best. "This time…this time we'll get it." He nodded to Naraku and Itachi. The undead were closing in. "Ready?" They nodded back. "One…two…HEAVE!" The cart crashed back onto its wheels. Shin was free.

Itachi gasped as he caught his breath. "Let's get out of here." He motioned for them to hurry the fuck up. All the while thinking Kagome was right behind him, like she always was. He jumped into the driving seat of the cart. In the time it had taken them to free Shin, they had become completely surrounded. A solid wall of undead was getting closer and closer.

In all the confusion, everyone seemed to have forgotten about Kagome. She laid concussed her back against the tunnel wall. Her eyes wide and staring, but seeing nothing. A group of undead had gathered around her. She was dead meat. One of the undead dragged his fingers through her hair.

Blurred imagery and distorted voices bounced around in her head. The logic of a dream.

" _I can help you get the virus. Access codes, security plans, the works."_

" _Good."_

_The image cleared even more and it reveaedl not only Sasuke but Kagome and Itachi. Kagome was leaning next to a window which Itachi was sitting in. He had his mask on so you couldn't see his face._

" _But there's going to be a price."_

_Sasuke looked at her then at Itachi, "Name it."_

Kagome was lying like a limp rag doll. A dozen figures crowded around her, like an angry lunch line jostling for position. One undead had his hands in her hair. Another with her fingers already in his mouth.

Suddenly Kagome snapped back to life. Her eyes burning with a new found intensity. Her free hand came up. "Get the fuck off me." With a startlingly professional movement, she snapped the neck of the Undead. Whatever skills that had just returned were lethal.

-.- -.- -.-

Itachi glared at the golf cart. "It won't start."

Naruto glared at the golf cart. "Try it again."

Itachi was reaching his wits end with this boy. "I already did Dobe!" Naruto froze at the familiar nickname yet he quickly snapped out of it when he noticed the undead were everywhere and stars firing, but nothing could hold back the tide.

The slide on Shin's automatic racks back and stays there. He was out of ammo. He struggled to load another clip, but his injured hand made it difficult. He fumbled and dropped the spare mag. He stooped to retrieve it, and when he looked back up, he stared straight into a familiar face.

The undead that was dragged behind the cart! His clothes were ripped and torn and covered in dark oily blood. But he was back for Shin. "Oh shit!" Shin struggled with the spare clip. "Get in! Get in!"

The Undead reached for Shin, he tried to fend it off with his injured hand. But the Undead just grabbed a hold of the bandages. With a smile on his face, he sunk his teeth into Shin's already wounded hand. The pain was unbearable. "Aaaaaah!" Naruto turned, alerted by Shin's scream. He shot the Undead and Shin pushed it off his hand.

Naruto looked around. A sea of undead faces. It was hopeless. Then suddenly a miracle happened. The dead sea parted as Kagome carved her way through it. She ducked, she kicked, she weaved, she rolled. And everywhere she went, things died. "I got my memory back."

Naruto smiled at her. "In that case, what I said earlier...I take it back. Whoever you are, I think we're going to get along just fine." Kagome's sudden arrival had thrown the undead into confusion, but it wouldn't last long. "We can't stay here. There's too many of them." Kagome looked around. They had to get out of here. "Above us!"

Naruto looked up. He saw the network of pipes and cables hanging from the ceiling. "That's how we're getting out." She turned to the others. "Everyone up on the cart." One by one they climbed onto the broken roof of the golf cart. From there they could pull themselves up onto the overhanging pipes. There was an eighteen inch gap between the top of the pipes and the ceiling. Enough room to crawl along.

Down below, the undead reached for them, but their outstretched fingers couldn't quite touch the pipes. For the moment, they were safe. Two of the undead tried to climb onto the roof of the golf cart, but they didn't have the coordination. The roof collapsed, taking them with it.

Shin laughed. "You dumb fucks." He tied a fresh bandage around his hand. There was blood everywhere. It dropped down onto the undead below, driving them into a frenzy. Like sharks circling their prey. "You like that?" He deliberately squeezed a few more dropped onto their foreheads. "You like that huh?" The undead begin to fight amongst themselves, pushing and jostling, desperate for a taste of blood. "You like how that tastes?" They reach their hands out imploringly to Shin. "Well fuck you!"

Naruto placed a calming hand on Shin's shoulder. "Cool it man. No point in getting them all riled up."

Shin glared at him. "What…you're worried about their feelings? I'm the one bleeding to death here. Beside's they've taken more than enough from me tonight." He angrily shrugged Naruto's hand off his shoulder.

Things were about to turn nasty, when Kagome interrupted. "Let get going." She stared the two men down. "That's if you gentlemen have quite finished." Everyone could see the change in her character. She was icy cold. What no one else knew, was the reason why.

She caused all this, she fucked up.

-.- -.- -.-

The team slowly worked their way along the crawlspace. Naruto was in the lead, followed by Naraku and Kagome, Shin then Itachi bring up the rear.

Shin was very pale. He had lost a lot of blood. "I need to rest." He stopped to catch his breath.

Kagome shook her head in apology. "We have to keep moving."

Shin refused to budge. "How much further?"

Kagome looked around recognizing where they were. "From what I remember of the map, not far."

Shin groaned. "Why don't you just switch on your little friend and ask her?"

Kagome shook her head. "I don't want to use her unless we have to. Every time she seems to get less reliable."

Naruto nodded. "She's definitely forgetting things."

Kagome looked at Itachi in question. "Itachi?" He blinked. "I don't know." He shrugged. "It's possible her memory was damaged when we shut her down and transferred her to the box-" Itachi was interrupted by an agonizing cry from below. A large crowd of undead have gathered beneath them. They seem more angry and aggressive than usual.

Kagome glanced at Shin's wound. "They can smell the blood." A hundred undead fingers reach out towards the live meat above them. Just a few tantalizing inches away. "Let's get going."

Shin looked at her, his whole body crying out for rest. "Why worry? They can't get to us."

Kagome sighed knowing he was tired yet they could not rest. They couldn't afford to lose any more time.

"I just want to get out of here. Please Shin."

Shin grunted in pain but nodded his head. "Fine."


	20. Chapter 20

**THE PIPES — LATER**

They had almost reached the end of the tunnel. Below, the crowd of undead had become even larger and more unruly. As if they sensed that they were about to lose their prey.

Kagome pointed to something up ahead. "That's the one we want." The network of pipes split in two, one branch disappearing into a vent straight ahead, and a second smaller bundle of pipes veering off into a vent in the side wall.

Naruto nodded. "Straight ahead. Just another hundred feet." They passed the junction where the pipes split. Only another fifty feet to go. As before, Naruto lead the way with Shin and Itachi bringing up the rear.

Below, the undead were getting frantic.

One of the metal brackets that held the pipes to the ceiling creaked. The bolts that fixed the bracket to the rock were old and rusted. As Naruto passed over the section one of the bolts was beginning to come loose.

Naraku was next. His body was heavier and the bolt began to worm out of the rock. The whole support bracket was beginning to buckle.

Naruto looked hopeful. "The pipes go into some kind of air shaft." A mesh screen covered the entrance to the air shaft. Naruto used a knife to pry it away from the rock. "I think I can get the cover loose." The mesh screen popped off, a sharp edge cutting Naruto's hand. "Damn!" Naruto lifted the screen away with his bloody hand and tossed it below. The undead scrambled all over it. One stuck the mesh in his mouth to lick the traces of blood from it. The undead were working themselves into a frenzy.

As Kagome passed beneath it. The bolt was almost completely free of the rock. The whole bracket suddenly began to sag. "What was that?" A harsh metallic sound echoed through the area as the rusted bolt shoots free.

Naruto realized with dread what was happening. "The supports...they're coming loose!" Naraku and Naruto were already safely in the air vent. "Hurry! You've got to get of f there." Kagome redoubled her efforts. Shin and Itachi were right behind her. But the faster they went, the greater the strain on the support brackets.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Rusted metal bolts shot free of the ceiling as loud as gunshots. A whole length of piping came free and sagged towards the undead. Suddenly Itachi, Shin and Kagome were within reach. Undead fingers reach around their arms, their legs, their throats.

Kagome gasped her voice ringing with desperation. "No!" She struggled against them. Naruto reached out an arm to her, when crash! The whole section of piping finally gave way. "Hold on!" Naruto braced himself and kept a hold of Kagome. He dragged her slowly, painfully into the air shaft and safety.

But there was no one to help Itachi and Shin.

Shin tumbled off the pipes and was dragged under by a sea of undead. His gun firing wildly as he was sucked down. "Fuck you! Fuck you!" The undead ripped at his flesh, bit into his limbs. But still he kept fighting. Screaming and shooting.

Undead bodies were flung through the air by the force of the 2416. And when that was out of ammo, Shin began to blaze away with a .45 automatic, until finally the others could lift him to safety. "Aaaaaaaah!" He was safe, but badly mauled.

Itachi was also in trouble, but near a fallen section of piping. He began to drag himself back up to safety, the undead literally hanging off him.

Kagome noticed the undead closing in on him and yelled. "Keep them off him!" Kagome and the others laid down a blanket of covering fire. His legs were no longer working, but Itachi pulled himself back towards the roof with sheer force of will. "Just keep them away from him!" The others blazed away, keeping the tide of undead at bay. Just barely.

"Oh God…" Itachi collapsed at the top of the pipes. He was back near the roof now, but separated from the others by a twenty foot section of fallen piping. It might as well have been the Grand Canyon. The only way for him to go was back. "I can't feel my legs."

Kagome paled. "We'll get to you somehow." He met her gaze and she flinched back from the intensity of it. "No." He shook his head. Suddenly determined. "You go."

Kagome shook her head in denial. "We're not leaving you.  _I'm_  not leaving you." His eyes hardened. "Yes you are." She shook her head as tears unwillingly gathered in her eyes. This couldn't be happening. She had just gotten her memories back. She couldn't lose him! But already the undead were climbing the fallen section of pipe.

"You can't kill them all." He looked down at his ravaged body. "And I'm not going anywhere." The tears started to seep from her eyes. "Itachi..." He smiled at her. "I want you to go." She shook her head. " **Now**!"

Naruto took Kagome by the arm. He knew what had to be done. "Just do it now... _Go_!" He watched his friends disappear into the gloom of the air vent. Below him, a pair of undead were climbing the fallen pipe. Their once crisp lab coats were streaked with dirt and blood.

Kouga was leading the way. A hungry look in his eyes.

"Just you and me ugly. I always knew I didn't like you for a reason." He checked his handgun. Just one shell left. "That's lucky." Kouga was almost upon him. Undead hands reaching out. He aimed the gun, closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out deafening him as Kagome's face flashed in his mind's eye. 'Kagome'

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome, Naruto, and Naraku stopped when they heard the single shot echo down the air shaft. They knew what it meant. Kagome hung her head. Her silent tears glistened in the half light.


	21. Chapter 21

Kouga fell from the overhanging pipes, a fresh bullet hole neatly between his eyes.

Itachi huffed as he glared at the horde of undead. "Fuck it!" He held the smoking gun in his hand. Still very much alive. "I'm not going out that easy."

He looked at the undead climbing the pipe towards bin. He smirked. "You're going to have to work for your supper."

Behind him, the network of pipes splits in two. One running back down the length of the access tunnel, the way they came. The other disappearing into a small air vent in the side wall.

Itachi pulls the mesh screen aside and drags himself into the vent. This was much narrower than the one the others escaped into. Tight, claustrophobic, terrifying.

He began to crawl away from the pipes. Every movement was agony. He left a trail of fresh blood behind him.

Unknowing to him Ayame crawled in behind him.

A large metal fan blocked Itachi's progress. Its sharp steel blades spin at high speed, forcing air down the shaft. There was no way around it, and no way through it. "Damn!"

He looked back down the shaft. Around the corner, he could see the shadow of Ayame. No way forward and no way back. He was trapped.

He fumbled through his utility belt. Found his laptop. He glanced at the spinning metal blades. "Here we go." He tried to force the laptop between the blades. The blades sparked and began to chop away at the computer. He pushed harder. Shreds of plastic and microchip were flung back at him. Itachi pushed harder still.

And suddenly the fan stopped. The laptop had lodged between the blades, jamming the mechanism.

Itachi glanced at the mangled remains of his computer. The most expensive door stop ever. He smiled. "Thank you Bill Gates."

Behind him, Ayame made a noise. Excited. She smelt fresh meat.

Itachi began to drag himself between the sharp metal blades of the fan. Ayame was right on his tail. Her fingers reached for his legs. Itachi pulled himself faster. In his haste, he dislodged the laptop slightly. The steel blades moved a fraction. The laptop groaned under the strain. It was going to be crushed at any moment.

Itachi was clear of the blades. Ayame followed him. The laptop splintered and began to crack. Ayame was half way through the blades. CRACK! The laptop was split clean in two. The blades spun back to life, slicing neatly through Ayame. Her legs were suddenly no longer attached to her body.

Itahci chuckled. "Yes!"

Ayame looked down at her legs, and then back up at Itachi. She dragged her torso towards him. Oblivious to anything but the fresh meat up ahead. "Aw shit!"

Itachi began to haul himself away. But his progress was blocked. The air shaft took a sharp 90 degree turn. Straight down. There was no way to climb down there, and no end in sight. The shaft seemed to dropped forever.

Ayame growled a low animal noise. She sensed that she had her prey trapped.

Itachi fumbled in his utility belt again. His hands find a grenade. It's slick with blood. His own.

He glanced back at Ayame. The legless monstrosity was still coming forward. An unearthly light in her green eyes.

"Screw you. There's only one woman who can get what she wants from me with one look like that and it's not you!" Itachi threw the grenade back at Ayame. It bounced and rolled, then hit her squarely in the forehead. She stopped. Picked up the grenade, smelt it. Smelt the blood and then began to lick hungrily at it. She tried to force it in her mouth and it exploded in her mouth! She was vaporized. But he had no time for celebration. The explosion raced up the confines of the air shaft.

The blast hit him like a tidal wave. Searing his flesh and flinging him backwards. He was hurled against the far wall of the shaft and then dropped like a stone. Into the depths.

-.- -.- -.-

A deserted hallway. Nothing moved, but still something hangs in the air. A low scratching noise. Like rats running behind the wall.

Without warning, there was the muffled burst of automatic gunfire and a section of the roof collapsed. Pipes and plaster fall to the floor, followed by Naruto and Kagome. Naraku brought up the rear, propping up a near dead Shin.

Kagome looked around, getting her bearings. "Follow me. Not far to go now. This way to the entrance. We're almost there."

Naruto mentioned for them to stop. "Wait. I know where we were." He stared through the glass window into the lab. "This was where they kept the T—virus."

Kagome glowered at him impatiently. "So?"

"So ... we have to find it. It's evidence. Of what they were doing down here"

She shook her head. "No way. We should keep going. Get to the surface."

Naruto couldn't understand her reluctance. But how could he? How could anyone else know she was implicated? She let this happen…


	22. Chapter 22

Kagome looked around uneasy yet nodded, "Fine but let's make it fast."

He nodded and lead the way into the abandoned lab. Naruto placed The Box on a lab table. Rin flickered back to life. But now her image was faint, strangely distorted. Something was wrong.

Naruto looked at her in concern. "You okay?"

Naraku snorted, "She's just a computer ... who cares how she feels."

Rin glared at him and turned to smile at Naruto, "Unexpected power drain." Half of her face froze for a moment, making it seem as if she had had a stroke, it was a weird, unsettling image.

Naraku rolled his eyes, "Let's just get on with it."

Naruto glared at him yet nodded, "We need to know where the T-virus is stored."

"Both the T-3 and T-4 antidote were kept at 27.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the freezer behind you." She hesitated as if uncertain. "No wait. 24.7 degrees, yes, yes, that's it. 24.7 degrees." The computer's memory was clearly fading fast.

Naruto nodded as he moved over to the freezer and opened the door. Inside were two racks, one marked T-3, the other T—4. Both racks were empty. He looked confused. "I don't understand. It's gone ..."

Naraku's eyes zero in on the empty shelves as his mind was flooded with images and sounds…memories…

" _I can help you get the virus. Access codes, security plans, the works."_

" _Good."_

_The image clears even more and it revealed not only Sasuke but Kagome and Itachi. Kagome was leaning next to a window which Itachi was sitting in. He had his mask on so you couldn't see his face._

" _But there's going to be a price."_

_Sasuke looked at her then at Itachi, "Name it."_

_This time Itachi spoke. "You have to guarantee us...you'll bring this Corporation down."_

_What they don't know was that Naraku was Standing at a distance. Unseen and listening. He was shaking in anger, not only was his 'wife' acting on her own but she was acting very chummy with Itachi. Then again he knew they had something going on. Even so he thought she ended it when she 'married' him. She would pay. They would pay._

_-.- -.- -.-_

_Naraku looked down on Kagome, still asleep in bed. He finished writing out a note and then placed it by her sleeping form – "Today all your dreams come true."_

_-.- -.- -.-_

_He carefully lifted vials from the lab refrigerator. His gloved hands slipped them into a foam lined carry case. The vials were delicate. Filled with a cool blue liquid._

_His hands moved quickly. Urgently. Naraku smirked as the last one was lifted from the refrigerator. But in his haste, he let the vial slip. The delicate glass tube tumbled end over end. And crashed to the floor._

_He looked down at the floor in horror._

His eyes filled with the sudden realization of what he had done. He caused everything. "Naraku?" He blinked as he Kagome's voice broke through his daze. It was then he realized where he was, who he was with, and that he had a gun… "Naraku?"

The gun was pointed at the others. "What were you doing?"

He smirked at her, "Finishing what I started." She looked at him in confusion as his facial features twisted into something dark and ugly. "What do you mean?" He smiled at her, "I stole your idea." He turned to Naruto, "Drop the gun."

Naruto did as he wass told. Naraku smirked at him "On the floor. Now kick it over to me."

Naruto did as he was told once again but this time realization and disgust was painted on his face. "You caused all this, didn't you?"

Naraku glared at him. "Shut up." He smiled as he turned to Kagome. "It should have been so simple."

She frowned at him. "Why? Why do it?"

Naruto glared at Naraku. "For money no doubt."

Naraku smirked. "Yes...a lot of it."

He reached behind a shelving unit. Jammed back there was the carry case containing the T-3 virus and its antidote T-4. Exactly where he had hidden it.

"What do you know? I knew where it was all the time." He smiled. "I just didn't remember."

Naruto glared at him, "So who's paying you?"

He smirked, "Does it matter? All that matters is the money." He turned to Kagome, "It could still work out."

She looked at him coldly, "What are you talking about?" She cast her eyes around the room. All the death. All the horror. "Look around you Naraku. There are hundreds of people dead."

He smiled at her, "It was an accident. That was never supposed to happen. The money's out there waiting. You won't believe how much. We could just disappear." He looked imploringly at her. "In or out?"

She didn't reply. He glared at her. "In  _or_  out?"

She shook her head negatively shocking Naraku. "You can't be serious. You'd rather stay down here? You do know Itachi's already dead? Or have you already moved on? You were always a fickle bitch. You had me yet you still ran to  _him_  and now look where he's at…he's dead and you will be soon."

She just stared coldly at him. "Alright. If that's what you want. Hope you and your new boyfriend are very happy."

He backed away, to the lab doors. He was carrying everyone's guns. "But if you ask me…I don't think it's going to last." He stepped through the doors. They closed behind him.

Naruto made to follow. He paused when he heard the deadened sound of automatic gunfire through the steel doors. "Damn it!"

Naruto struggled with the door, but it wouldn't budge. "He shot out the mechanism. We're never going to get this thing open."

Rin appeared on a T.V. screen. "I wouldn't worry about your friend."

Kagome looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

Rin smiled. "I've been a bad, bad girl."


	23. Chapter 23

Naraku hurried down the corridor. Up ahead he could see the main entrance to the Hive. Beyond it the cavern and the elevator platform.

He was home free.

-.- -.- -.-

Rin brought up the holographic floor plan. Naraku's heat signature was moving towards the exit. But another signature was closing in on him. The Stranger. "Look. It's got his scent already."

Kagome blinked in confusion. "It?"

-.- -.- -.-

Naraku left the hive and crossed the cavern. He passed by the underground river and the spot where they had first discovered him hours earlier.

He reached the platform and busied himself with the controls. Ready to return to the mansion and safety.

-.- -.- -.-

On the holographic map, the two heat signatures meet. And merge.

-.- -.- -.-

"What…" He looked up to the ceiling. Hanging there was The Stranger. But it's not the 120 pound male the Red Queen had described. Instead it was the creature that Kagome had found so unnerving in the Specimen Room.

300 pounds of pure evil.

Four claw like talons dug into the rock face, holding it in place. Its long fleshy tongue uncoiled, snaking down towards its prey. Razor sharp barb covered the tongue's grotesque length. "Fuck me…" As if to oblige, the creature dropped from the ceiling. Its tongue lasheed out, the razor barbs tearing Naraku's clothes and gouging into the flesh beneath.

Naraku's screams were cut short as the creature leapt forward and began to devour him whole. Naraku went into shock and passed out.

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome, Naruto and Shin listen as Rin casually filled them in on their executioner. "...a bio-mechanical weapon of the highest order. It was one of the earlier experiments produced by the Hive, using the same genetic material as the t—virus. You released it accidentally in the specimen room."

Kagome looked shocked. "But it was dead...I saw it."

Rin nodded. "It was... for a while."

Naruto was pale. "If you knew what it was, why didn't you warn us?" Rin didn't reply.

Kagome sighed, "Because she was saving it...for us. Wasn't that right?"

Rin blushed under his gaze embarrassed at being caught, "I didn't think any of you would make it this far ...Not without infection." She glanced at Shin. He glared at her, "You were going to let that thing finish us off."

BAM! A sudden noise scareed them all. The creature was right there at the window.

Naruto gaped at it, "The fucker's got no eyes."

The creature moved to a cluster of small holes. The tip of its grotesque long tongue snaked through one of the narrow holes. It swayed back and forth.

Kagome covered her mouth, "It's sensing the air. It can smell us."

The creature withdrew its tongue, then backed away from the glass.

Naruto looked on appalled. "What's it doing?"

Suddenly the creature raced at them. Hurling its whole body weight against the window. The glass quivered, but held.

Shin released his breath. "It's not getting through there. That glass is bullet proof." The creature tried again. Hurling itself even harder at the window. And again it was repealed. But small spider web cracks have begun to appear in the glass.

Kagome stared at the window in horror. "Shit. We gotta move now." Every one nodded.

Kagome and Naruto raced through the abandoned hallway. They carry Shin between them. They were going back the way they came. Back into the Hive.

Naruto grunted as he held most of Shin's weight. "This is hopeless. It has us cut off from the exit. All we're doing is going deeper".

Kagome scoffed at his condescending tone. "You got any better ideas?"

Rin appeared next to them. "I know a way."

Naruto looked at her. "What did you say?"

Rin rolled her eyes at him, was he hard of hearing? "I know a way out."

Shin glared at her, little bitch. "Fuck you!" Shin coughed…up blood. "She's never going to let us out. I'm infected."

Rin looked at him pity in his eyes. "I'm sorry ... I  _do_  like you, but my sensors indicate your blood loss is already at 42.7%." Genuine compassion was clear in her voice. "You're not leaving this complex alive." Behind them they hear the glass in the lab shatter.

The hunt was on.

"We have to hurry." Naruto and Kagome shared a look. "You have to trust me."


	24. Chapter 24

Naruto and Kagome run blindly through a complex maze of corridors. Shin held between them. Close behind the thing was gaining fast.

"Take a left, here." They rounded a corner. "Then a right." They raced towards an intersection. "Straight ahead." Then another. "Now a left no ... no a right."

Naruto huffed as he and Kagome stop to stare at Rin in confusion a thin line of annoyance in their eyes. "Which way?"

"A right." She sounds a bit uncertain.

Naruto looked at her impatiently, "You're sure?"

Rin nodded a small smile on her face, even so doubt was hidden in it. "Yes, yes I'm sure." Up ahead was a door.

They burst into the room, slamming the door behind them. Four walls of concrete, no other door.

Naruto groaned as he glared at the wall."Now what?" He looked around the bare room his anger rising, "Now what!" Rin didn't reply, she looked away sadly. "It's a dead end!"

Naruto was getting furious. "You've led us into a dead end. There's no way out of here!"

Rin shook her head, "No there was!"

Shin glared at her as his breath came out in short pained gasps. "I told you not to trust her!"

Rin looked at Kagome pleadingly. "I...I can't remember, I thought..."

Naruto huffed, "You thought what?"

Rin looked at the floor, "I'm sorry."

Naruto took a step towards her as if to hit her even though she was nothing more then a hologram. "You're sorry! You piece of ..."

But Kagome stopped him by placing her hand on his arm and steeling him with a harsh glare. "Clam down Naruto. If you would just look…." She pointed at the dead end wall. There was bare outline of a door etched on it. Recessed and hidden.

Rin smiled as she looked happily at Kagome. "I knew that…" She trailed off her face becoming troubled.

Naruto sent her an apologetic look, "How do we open it?"

Kagome sighed mutely as she brushed past him "There's a key pad here."

Everyone followed her with their eyes as she approached the wall. Hidden in it was a barely visible panel.

Rin nodded slowly, "Emergency exit ..." Rin seemed to struggle with her words. Her power was almost exhausted. "... memory ...failing…"

Kagome smiled softly at her, "That's enough Rin. Rest for a bit." Rin nodded slowly even though it appeared she was having difficultly doing even that.

BAM! The door behind them buckled and was almost wrenched off the wall.

Kagome jumped and turned to face it shocked, "Jesus!"

Everyone paled thinking the creature had found them.

Naruto turned to Rin, "What's the code?" You could sense the urgency in his voice. He quickly moved to the keypad which controls the emergency exit.

Rin scrunches her face as if in thought. "Four ... Digits…Faaaaw ... Threeeee." Her image flickers. She's dying. "Nnnnnnine ... Ssssss"

And suddenly she was gone. The Queen was dead.

Everyone groaned. Naruto was hysterical. "Ssseven, ssix ... what?" He was so caught up in his hysterics that he missed Kagome's sad face.

The creature continued to pound against the door behind them. Its talons punching through the metal.

Kagome quickly wiped the look off her face as the seriousness of the situation caught up with her again. "Just try one."

Naruto looked at her uncertainly. "What if it's the wrong number?"

She moved to stand by him, "Then we try the other ... just hurry up."

His finger hovered over the two digits. He glanced at Kagome and she smiled encouragingly at him. He smiled back and turned back to the panel. "Here we go."

He punched the seven. The door beeped…


	25. Chapter 25

" _Access Denied."_  The mechanical voice was cold and devoid of emotion as it told them their fate.

The outline of the keypad sunk back into the wall disappearing for good.

Naruto pounded his hand on the wall. "No!" The emergency exit door did the same, leaving nothing but a bare concrete wall. "That's just not fair!"

BAM! The door behind them has almost given way. The creature's tongue poked through a hole in the metal and lashed around the room.

Naruto desperately looked around. Four solid walls, no air vents, no way out.

Shin groaned in pain from his spot on the floor. "We're going to die in here."

Suddenly, the emergency exit behind them began to open.  _"Stand clear ... door opening."_

They look on in astonishment as the door swung aside to reveal…

"Itachi!"

Leaning weakly against the control panel on the other side was Itachi. His body torn and broken, but he was smiling like a Cheshire Cat. "Anbu...we're not so easy to kill." Everyone cracked a smile at his words.

Sensing its prey may escape, the creature slammed against the door once more. It began to squeeze its body through the gap.

Itachi paled as his gaze shifted to the weird creature."What is that thing?"

Kagome grunted as she hurried to pick up Shin and drag him into the room. "You don't want to know." Itachi nodded in agreement as he shoved the door shut with help from Naruto.

-.- -.- -.-

They crossed the cavern to the elevator platform. Lying by the controls was the skeletal remnants of Naraku. He still clutched a machine pistol uselessly in his hand. Lying by the body was the carrying case containing the T—virus and its antidote. Kagome picked it up.

Naruto laid Shin on the platform. Itachi busied himself with the controls.

Naruto smiled tiredly at him, "Get us out of here Itachi." He smiled back just as tired. "Platform's already powered up. We're headed topside in seconds."

The platform began to vibrate with energy. Kagome kneeled by what remained of Naraku's body. She slipped the wedding ring off his finger. Just like hers, it bared the same inscription:

"Property of Sound Corp."

She slipped the ring into her pocket. "You were a lousy husband."

She jumped as the creature fell from the ceiling without warning. She screamed as it launched it's self at her.

"No!" Naruto and Itachi both move to help her but Itachi was stopped by his tattered body.

Naruto raced forward, but was sideswiped by the creatures tongue. He was flung through the air and crashed into the side of the platform. He laid still, like a broken doll.

Itachi cursed as he tried to drag himself towards the creature and Kagome.

The Creature's mouth opened to reveal row upon row of teeth. This thing was built to kill.

It reared triumphant above Kagome. It was about to take a gaping bit out of her like her husband before her. Yet before it could it was blown off of her by the force of multiple rounds tearing into it's flesh.

Kagome had found Naraku's gun and was putting it to good use. She paled as the gun dry clicked…out of ammo.

"Fuck."


	26. Chapter 26

Shin grunted in pain as he pulled his standard issued combat knife from his pocket. Just because he could not move did not mean he would idly sit by and watch Kagome die. "Catch!" With the last of his strength he threw it to her.

Kagome cried out in agony as the Creature's deadly tongue lashed past her. She twisted her body so that it scraped down her left arm, lacerating, but not killing. The tongue smashed into the platform's floor, the sharp barbs digging into the ornate wooden tiles.

Kagome grunted as she caught the knife and in one seamless move drove it straight through the hideous tongue, pinning it to the platform's floor.

The Creature screamed, it was a terrifying inhuman Sound.

Itachi looked in horror as Kagome struggled to get away from the creature as the platform began to raise, on auto pilot. "Kagome!"

She kicked the creature off of her and rushed to the platform. She smirked down at the creature as it was dragged towards the ceiling, its body banging off the platform, but held in place by its pinned tongue. Its limbs flail helplessly in the air. "Die you fucker!"

A second later, the platform disappeared into the shaft. Cutting the Creature's tongue from its body. The creature screamed in unholy agony and then was gone.

-.- -.- -.-

Naruto groaned and struggled to sit up. Kagome smiled as she moved to crouch down next to him. "Naruto?" He smiled at her , "I'm okay."

His eyes zeroed in on the creature's severed tongue, it was left pinned to the floor of the platform. Still writhing with a life of its own, but pinned firmly in place by Shin's knife. He arched an eyebrow, "What happened?"

She smiled at him, "Ehehehe…I'll tell you later." She turned to smile at Shin, "Thanks."

He smiled at her through the pain, "Don't mention it." She noticed his pain and moved to kneel by him. "How are you doing?" He grimaced. "Bad."

"This should help." The battered box containing the T-virus and its antidote hung from her belt. She broke it open and reached for a shot of the antidote. He placed his hand on her own. "Save it. Too late for me."

Kagome frowned at him. "Shin…" He pulled his hand away and weakly held up his gun. "I saved one round... when the time comes ..."

Kagome shook her head and placed her hand on the gun lowering it. "We're going to get you out of here." He frowned his eyes slightly glazed. "I don't want to be one of those things. Walking around ...without a soul." He pressed the gun into her hand. "You'll take care of it" He looked her in the eye. "Kagome."

She nodded. And his eyes slowly close. His head sunk to his chest.

She let out a cry. But he didn't move. Slowly, shakily, she raised the gun. Her vision was blurred with tears.


	27. Chapter 27

The muzzle of the gun was an inch from his head. Her finger tightened on the trigger, but still she couldn't fire.

Then suddenly his hand shot up grabbing her arm. She screamed in shock.

Shin smiled lightly. "Wait…wait a second…I'm not dead yet." She was let out a startled sound of relief. "Maybe I'd better have this back." He eased the revolver back into his belt. In the background, Itachi and Naruto were laughing. Despite the shock, Kagome couldn't help it. She began to laugh too.

A talon suddenly punched through the floor almost impaling Naruto. Missing his torso by inches, but slicing through his left leg. "Aaaaaah!"

The creature had lodged itself beneath the platform. Its talons were pulling apart the floor. Peeling it like a grape.

Kagome screamed. "Get over! Get over to the other side of the platform!"

Itachi looked at everyone panic in his eyes. "Seven levels to the top! Six."'

The creature was partially onto the platform. Fighting to drag its bulk through the jagged hole.

"Five."

But The creature was almost through.

Kagome cursed as she realized that it was going to be very close. "Dammit! We're not going to make it."

She raced over to the platform controls. She punched them furiously. The platform slowed to a halt. They were still a good seventy feet from the mansion.

Itachi looked at her in disbelief, what was she doing? Was she trying to kill them all? He trained her better then this! "What the hell are you doing?"

"Use the emergency ladders." She nodded over to two steel ladders recessed into the wall of the shaft. "I'm going to put the platform into free fall. Now get going!"

He nodded as he staggered to the emergency ladders as Naruto helped Shin onto the first rung. "Climb."

Shin looked at him in disbelief, did he forget that he was injured? "I can't!"

The creature's talons slashed out at Shin missing him by inches. It strained to reach him, its back leg still caught in the floor. "Climb damn it!" Slowly, painfully, he began to climb.

Kagome looked around nervously as the creature got closer. "Hurry!"

Naruto boosted Shin onto the ladders, then turned to Kagome. "Send this fucker back to hell!"

Kagome smirked as she punched in the command code. "Done."

The platform began to drop away, back into the depths.

Kagome made a jump for the ladders, just as the creature freed itself from the floor and made a leap for her.

Kagome cried out in pain as it caught her ankle making her almost lose her grip on the ladder.

Naruto noticed and quickly moved to help. "Hang on!" He turned to Shin. "Give me the gun. Your gun!"

Naruto reached for the revolver on Shin's belt, just as Shin turned to face him, his face contorted in a death mask. His eyes burning with unholy life. "Aw Fuck." He grunted as Shin lunged at him, his teeth snapping at the warm flesh. Naruto struggled to fight him off!

Kagome looked up and saw Naruto in trouble, but could do nothing. The creature began to claw its way up her body. She screamed in pain. She was holding their combined body weight. Every movement the creature made was agony.

Naruto struggled with Shin, it didn't look good. He gasped as Shin shifted and got closer to tipping his throat out. Where the fuck was Itachi?

Bam! He closed his eyes as Shin went lip above him. He gasped as he felt Shin's body get shoved off of his. He quickly snapped his eyes open to meet Itachi's.

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome smirked and opened her fist to reveal it was filled with vials of T—4, the T—virus antidote. She jammed them into the jaws of the creature. The vials broke and spilled liquid everywhere.

The antidote reacted with the creature as though it was acid. The inside of its mouth began to bubble and burn its skin cracking and popping.

-.- -.- -.-

Itachi smirked at Naruto as he tossed the gun he used to kill Shin down towards Kagome. "Kagome!" Naruto watched with wide eyes as it fell in slow motion. Suddenly Kagome's slim pale hand caught it in mid air. Naruto gaped as Kagome not only caught it but in one deft move, turned it on the creature. "Back to hell with you!"

The bullet raced from within the gun. It took only seconds for it to tear through the creatures already weakened flesh and erupt out the back of it's head in a shower of blood and brain matter

The creature slowly, painfully lost its grip on Kagome and pitched back into the depths below.

The platform crashed into the cave floor at over 200 m.p.h. Broken rock, splintered wood and twisted metal flew everywhere.

The creature tumbled through the air, its agonized howls were brought to an abrupt halt as it hit the remnants of the platform.

A huge broken shard of wooden flooring impaled the creature. Its own body weight dragging it down the jagged shaft. The creature spasmed as it's last breath left its twisted body.

What was left of the creature hung a few feet above the floor of the wrecked platform, dripping the dark oily substance that passed for its blood. An explosion of bones and organs. Some recognizably human, some not.

A piece of paper drifts threw the air having fallen out of Kagome's pocket during the struggle eventually it landed on the bizarre remnants of the creature. As slime and ooze soaked through the paper as it slowly unfolded to reveal the words:

_"Today all your dreams come true."_


	28. Chapter 28

Naruto appeared at the lip of a shaft and hauled himself onto the mansion floor. It had been five minutes since they had woken up in the wreckage of their escapade. It was a miracle they were still alive. As it was Itachi was banged up the most. He had for some reason shielded him from the harshest part of the impact.

He gasped as he lay on the floor and tried to catch his breath. "What the hell did you do to that thing?"

Kagome grunted as she followed suit. "Something Rin said to do." Once she was fully out she carefully dragged Itachi from the open shaft. "She said the Creature was the product of the same genetic material as the undead. So I figured the antidote would harm it in some way."

Itachi groaned. His head fell to one side. He was near exhaustion, but still hanging on.

"We'd better get him to a hospital." They hoisted Itachi between them and headed for the mansion's door.

Naruto shook his head as the nights activates catching up with him. "You guys sure know how to have one hell of a night." Kagome smiled as she reached for the door.

Just as Kagome's hand reached for the door, the wrist alarm on Itachi's left hand went off. A shrill beeping noise. The digital wrist clock flashed: 00:00:00 "Now what?" Kagome swung open the mansion door. But instead of a fresh breeze and a brand new dawn, they found themselves still inside.

The whole mansion had been tented out! Contained within a viral perimeter.

Suddenly banks of bright lights kicked in, blinding the survivors. Gloved hands reached for, them. Faceless technicians hidden beneath monstrous anti-viral suits tried to pry them apart.

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome was strapped onto a stretcher and loaded into the back of a Darkwing. The door slammed behind her, and she found herself staring into the reflective visor of a clean suit. No sign of a face beneath, just her own reflection.

"Where's Naruto? What about Itachi?" The technician didn't reply.

"They need help!" The technician sighed and decided to answer her frantic questions before it got out of hand.

"He's safe." His voice was hideously distorted by an electronic filter. "You're all safe."

-.- -.- -.-

Naruto blinked and struggled against the straps that held him down. "Let me go!" He was ignored which only fueled his anger more. He wanted to be back with Kagome and Itachi, not separated from them and dragged off to God knows where. "Let me out of here you fucking bastards!" He let out a yelp as a needle was roughly shoved into his arm and a liquid entered his body.

He cried out as it spread though his body, burning a pathway, and his vision blacked out in and out. "Bastards…" His vision completely left him as he passed out.

-.- -.- -.-

The stretcher holding Itachi was loaded into the craft. "Secure!" As the Darkwing began to take off, a team of medics raced to save Itachi's life.

"Jesus he's a mess."

"Vitals are plunging!"

"50 cc's of adrenaline!"

"He's going flatline." Itachi's eyes flickered and then closed.

"Come on goddamn it!" The chief medic ripped his mask off startling the other medics.

"What were you doing! Protocol…" He glared at them shutting them up instantly. "Fuck protocol! I'm not going to let this man die." The Chief Medic began to give Itachi mouth to mouth. If anyone could save him, this man could.

"Breathe…" He blew another lung-full of air into Itachi's mouth. "…Breathe…" And another.

"…Breathe…" The Chief Medic's lips touched Itachi's for the last time, when suddenly his eyes snapped open as he sat up and coughed as air once again rushed into his lungs.

He coughed as he pushed the medic away from him. "W-Where were Kagome and Naruto?"

"Don't worry you'll see them soon. Get some rest." Itachi tired to fight the darkness that was creeping up on him but he was so tired that he soon lost his battle and gave in to it.

" _Kagome_."


	29. Chapter 29

Blue eyes snapped open. All they saw was white, white, and more white. Padded walls and an electronically locked door. Kagome laid on the floor. Coming around she squinted. The bright white light hurt her eyes. Even her hospital gown was crisp starched white. High above, out of reach was a smoked glass window. A light came on behind it to reveal four figures.

One of the figures stepped closer to the window."What happened in the hive?" She squinted s she tried to make out his features yet it was futile. "Who were you people? Where am I?"

A second figure stepped closer to the window. "We ask the questions." She glared at him. "Where were my friends?"

They ignored her question as the first one repeated his question. "What happened in the Hive?"

She glared at them two could play at this game. "You have no right to hold me here I-" The light behind the smoked glass window dimmed, and the figures disappeared from view. Kagome huffed as she closed her eyes she could play the waiting game just as long if not longer than them.

Kagome was sleeping contently on the floor at least until a siren woke her.

The light behind the smoked glass window came on. The figures were revealed once more. "What happened in the Hive?"

She snorted at them. "I'm not answering your questions." She glared defiantly.

"What happened in the Hive?" The voice was level and calm.

"I know what you're trying to do you're trying to hush this whole thing up." Her eyes narrowed, she would not bow to them. No she vowed then and there if she ever got out she would tell the world about what had happened in the hive.

"You don't realize the gravity of your situation." She scoffed. "Well I'm not going to keep my mouth shut, you understand?" Her voice was stubborn.

"Things would go better for you if you cooperated." The voice was still mostly clam yet it also held a hint of annoyance.

"Where were my friends?" The interrogator remained silent. "Where were they dammit!" She wanted to know where they were and she wanted to know  _now_.

"What happened in the Hive?" She glared at them pure hate dancing in her eyes. "Screw you!" The light behind the smoked glass window dims. The figure's disappeared from view once again.

-.- -.- -.-

Kagome sat in the corner, her back against the wall. She had no idea if it was night or day. She had no idea how long she'd been here. A day? A week? A month?

She stared at the white label on her white hospital gown. It bore the logo of the Sound corporation.

The siren sounded again. Kagome looked up as the light behind the smoked glass window came on. But the figures were nowhere to be seen. Their seats were empty. Instead, a half lit figure moved behind the glass. It seemed unsteady on its feet.

She froze as she heard a terrifyingly familiar sound. A low groaning noise. It seemed almost human.  _Almost_.

At that moment, the electronic lock by the door clicked from red to green. The padded cell door swung open an inch. She had no idea of what horror await her outside, but what choice did she have?

The same bright white on white, a corridor stretching off into infinity greeted her. Kagome nervously peered around the door. Straight into the face of…

"Kagome!" She spun around at the sound of her name and felt tears gather in her eyes when she saw who it was. "Naruto!" Kagome gasped as she threw her arms around him. He was dressed in an identical hospital gown to her own.

He smiled as he let her go yet held her close to him. "They were holding me in a cell next door." She nodded as she looked around. "What was this place?" They both looked around the deserted halls.

"Some kind of Sound facility." She gazed down the endless white corridor. No sign of life. "Where is everyone?" Suddenly a figure stepped into the foreground. It scared Naruto and Kagome. Yet Kagome smiled happily when she realized who it was.

"Rin, you're okay!" Before them stood a familiar holographic teenage girl. Only now she was dressed all in white.

The teenage hologram shook her head. "No." There was a sadness in her voice. "I think you're mistaking me for my sister. I am Kanna…I didn't understand what she was trying to do. I helped kill her." The young girl looked imploringly at Kagome. Was it possible? Was this computer seeking forgiveness? "I was wrong." They were interrupted by distant gunfire and the screams of the dying.

Naruto looked at her in confusion. "What happened here?"

Kanna looked down in shame. "The infection spread to cover the United States within 13 days…Canada and South America in 27 days…Worldwide infection happened in less than two months. We couldn't contain it." The sound of gunfire was getting closer. "I think you'd better go. It's not safe" Kagome took one last look back at the teenager. Her eyes held sadness no teenager had ever know real girl or not real. " _Go."_

They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, they were almost out of the building when they ran into a figure. Kagome gasped as she got a good look at who it was. "Itachi!" He looked like he'd been through hell yet he still looked happy to see them.

Itachi nodded at her and turned to look at Naruto. "We need to move  _now_. We can get reacquainted later." Every one nodded and they once again started running. After a moment they were swallowed in the blinding white light of the open doors leading outside.


	30. Chapter 30

Blue eyes snapped open. Kagome sat up with a start. She was in bed. Naked. The scars from the hive were old now. A good six months must have passed.

"Are you alright?" She blinked the sleep away as she turned to look at the speaker, it was Itachi. She nodded at him and looked around the RV.

She turned back to Itachi and noticed that he was staring intently at her no doubt wanting to know why she woke up with such a start. "Bad dreams." He nodded in understanding as he tossed her a tattered black cloak. She quickly put said cloak on and moved to sit next to him.

He was no longer dressed like a proud member of the Anbu squad. He was now wearing jeans a plain black sweater and guns. Lots of guns. "Why don't I find that surprising?"

She smiled as she leaned against him. He looked out the window as he casually draped an arm around her shoulders. "How long was I out this time?"

He hmed mulling it over. "Four hours."

She nodded, it was two more then she got yesterday, "So…how are we doing?" She snuggled into his side, a lot had changed in the past six months, yet some things remained the same.

"As well as we can be. Naruto's been driving for the past three hours…we had a minor run in with a small group of  _them_. All children…" Her expression fell as she intertwined her finger's with his. A golden ring shone in the light it was the twin to the one Kagome wore on her left hand.

She nodded. "I see…how are you?" She knew that even now six months after the hive incident he had not forgiven himself not only did he lose his brother but he had to kill him.

"I am well. Why don't you go check on Naruto?" She sighed as she got up and moved to do as he suggested but not before placing a quick kiss on his lips. "Get some sleep."

He nodded. "I'll try."

Kagome sighed as she plopped down in the passenger seat next to Naruto just being near his always optimistic personality was enough to brighten her day. He was the polar opposite of Itachi yet she loved them just the same. He was the one that kept their spirits up. "So…how much further captain?" He smiled at her, three whisker like marks sticking out on his otherwise flawless face, permanent reminders of that night all those months ago.

"Almost there. Another two, three miles." His hands rested on the steering wheel a gold band on his left hand shone in the light. It was similar to the one's worn by Kagome and Itachi yet it was different as well. Even so it held the same meaning.

Kagome let out a small breath. "I keep thinking about the Hive- You think we could have done things differently? Stopped them there?"

He sighed as he kept his eyes on the road. "Doubtful. But it's a nice thought." She nodded solemnly. "Yeah it was…we're almost there. You think we'll find anyone alive?"

His eyes dulled a little. "There's one way to find out." She nodded solemnly as she curled into a ball on the seat.

" _Yeah_."

A silence fell over them as the R.V. cruised down a street lined with abandoned cars and trucks.

 


End file.
